Translation of the article by di Tiziana Colluto | 3 novembre 2013 on il fatto quotidiano

The south Italian region of Salento risks becoming a desert, Italy the epidemic

In the province of Lecce 8 thousand hectares have been hit by the “Xylella fastidiosa”. Hundreds of thousands of plants have to be uprooted. Epidemic risk for all the country and the rest of Europe but in order to face the emergency there are no resources.

"We have never seen something similar in all the history of agriculture in Italy". Olive trees are dying in Salento and the sentence of Antonio Guario, Head of the Regional Plant Health Observatory, cannot be appealed. An entire part of area Lecce facing the Ionian sea, will see its symbolic plant almost entirely gone: the sick trees will be eradicated. They have been infected. And the epidemic in the rest of Italy and Europe is a risk too high requiring implementation of very harsh measures agreed between the Region of Puglia and the Ministry for Agriculture.

Probably underestimated at the beginning, in the last spring the enigma of the olive trees has started to become serious. Thousands of trees have suddenly started drying. The symptoms everywhere are the same: yellowing of large foliage, darkening of the inner wood, curled up leaves like if they were cigarettes. At the beginning was thought that it was a mushroom, the Phaeoacremonium, found in all the samples studied by the researchers. Then the latest diagnosis is a big blow. The cause of the "complex of fast drying of the olive trees" is the Xylella fastidiosa, a bacterium that had not been found in Europe before and never in this vegetable species. Not only. It's also pathogen, included in the list A1 of the EPPO European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization. This means that it is part of the blacklist of the bacteria that requires isolation because of their infective capacity.

It is not known when this deadly parasite has appeared in Puglia. Certain is that as gate to the old continent it has chosen Gallipoli. From there it has been spreading like wild fire through insects of the family of the Cicadellidae. "These little cicadas" explains Mr.Guario- have stung the xylem vessels, have absorbed the lymph and have transmitted the bacteria to other trees". In the ones that have been hit, the obstructed veins have made the system collapsed with a chain reaction that has already involved all the South-West part of the heel of the boot.

Xylella fastidiosa has shown to be able to run fast. Even too fast. And it has found fertile soil as many fields are in a state of abandon. "We have to stop its presence otherwise it will be a tragedy. The entire national agricultural world has been waiting precise replies from us. We realise that we have made complex commitments. We don’t have any other options." Mr. Guario has pointed out that also in front of farmers he has met on Monday morning in Lecce: the oil is saved this year, but we have indeed the commitment of uprooting the infected plants in that area identified as the "central area", large approximately 8 thousand hectares. A huge area.

"It is still not known the exact number of the olive trees that need to be uprooted. We wait for a database from the Agea in order to count it. In the meanwhile we are organising a full-scale monitoring. In the middle of the month two researchers from the Berkeley University in USA will come" explains Angelo Delle Donne, leading the co-ordination of the inspectors working for the provincial office of plant protection. Nobody can and wants to guess the amount of the environmental and economic disaster. However it's possible to have an idea: the area of Salento hosts an average density of 80 olive trees per hectare. Under risk of being uprooted, only in the area that has already been infected are therefore around 600 thousand trees."We are estimating if we should uproot them all" Mr.Guario has revealed. For those that have been cut in half we will do drastic pruning and we will use heavy pesticide treatments on weeds around.

It's a priceless heritage that is going up in smoke. In the hope that the parasite won’t make other jokes and exterminate other crops.  The National Research Council and the University of Bari are trying to unravel the knot. The  Xylella fastidiosa is at home is in California where it has been buying up vineyards. The strain present in Puglia seems, however, seems to be of hypovirulent type, not able to slaughter vines and citrus fruit. It has though the strength to attack also oleander, almond and especially the oaks, another of the most common trees in area of Lecce.  For this reason the nurseries of the area have had the passport of these plants suspended and a ban has been imposed on marketing them. A real blow, after that of the palms affected by the red weevil.

"No one, neither in Italy nor in Europe, is including the seriousness of the matter. The Minister of Agriculture, Nunzia De Girolamo, has promised action, but we are waiting for it to materialize in the actions and resources. I do not have much time. "The Regional Councillor for Agriculture, Fabrizio Nardoni, knows that to face the emergency at least "tens of millions of euro" are needed and that the forty experts sent from Rome to census olive trees are a tiny palliative. We have very little. And the whole National Solidarity Fund, amounting to 18 million euro, would not be enough to cope with the emergency alone. Not to mention that the landscape and environmental desert that is prospecting is also an economical one.