The impact of bacterial diseases on crops and food supplies (Plant Health Week webinar 2023)

On Wednesday 10 May 2023 as part of Plant Health Week 2023 we hosted a webinar looking at four different bacterial species and how they affect our crops and food supplies. Replays of the presentations are available now on our YouTube channel and you can also watch them by following the links below.

For the first talk Dr Joana Vicente (Fera) shared what the Brigit project discovered about the potential impact of Xylella fastidiosa if it were to be introduced in the UK.

Next up Dr Jason Sumner-Kalkun (SASA) talked about the Caliber project’s work on Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum, psyllid vectors and whether the bacteria could spread and cause problems for crops like carrots and potatoes in the UK.

The third speaker was Prof Ian Toth (James Hutton Institute) who focused on Blackleg disease of potatoes, caused by Pectobacterium atrosepticum and the work of the DeS-BL project.

And finally Prof Murray Grant (University of Warwick) of the Xanthomonas Threats project turned our attention to Xanthomonas spp, the causal agent of diseases in bananas, strawberries, brassicas and maize.