
The discovery of Xyella fastidiosa in European olive trees in 2013 caught European researchers off-guard.
In the late summer harvest of 2013, olive farmers in the Puglia region of southern Italy noticed that the leaves on several of their trees were turning brown and their shoots withering. The problem spread from one orchard to another, as more olive farmers found their trees were drying out and beginning to die.
Genetic testing confirmed them to be infected with Xyella fastidiosa, a bacteria originally found in America. Soon outbreaks appeared throughout the Mediterranean, even briefly as far north as Germany in 2016.














Comment: Erratic seasons and extreme weather are devastating crops all over the planet, and at the same time we're seeing outbreaks of all kinds.
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