Co-Authors:
Bar-Joseph, M., Virus Laboratory, ARO, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel
Sacks, J.M., Div. of Statistics and Experiment Design, ARO, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel
Garnsey, S.M., U.S. Dep. Agric, Horticultural Research Laboratory, FR, SEA, Orlando, Florida, United States
Abstract:
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) proved to be a sensitive detector for citrus tristeza virus (CTV) in orange fruits (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck). Samples of five fruits were taken from 350-kg packing house containers and tested by ELISA to predict the infection rate of CTV in two infected orange groves. The predicted infection rates, 1% and 11%, were in reasonable agreement with the observed rates of 1% (15/1400) and 16% (324/2053), respectively. The 360 test samples from reputedly uninfected groves all tested negative. These results suggest that the ELISA procedure may provide a general method of detecting viral or other systemic pathogenic infections using the fruit as the test material in place of tree tissue. Fruit samples can be collected routinely at the packing house to reduce test costs. © 1978 Springer Science + Business Media B.V.