Description
It was first reported in Italy in the early 1970s and is now widely present throughout northern Italy.
For more than 20 years, the Autonomous Province of Trento has been promoting territorial monitoring (in collaboration with FEM and the Trentino Wine Consortium) that makes it possible to define the real frequency and distribution of Flavescenza dorata and its vector, the leafhopper Scaphoideus titanus, on an annual basis and allows the relative phytosanitary measures to be directed.
In view of the worsening and damage caused by the pest, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry redefined the emergency phytosanitary measures and by Ministerial Decree 6 June 2023 repealed the previous decree of 31 May 2000 and issued the new Ministerial Order of 22 June 2023, No 4, 'Emergency phytosanitary measures to combat Grapevine flavescence doree phytoplasma in order to prevent its spread within the territory of the Italian Republic' (G.U. 12/08/2023, No 188).
The Provincial Phytosanitary Service implements at provincial level both the new Ordinance of the Central Phytosanitary Service and the Provincial Plan for Combating Flavescence dorée (Resolution of the Provincial Council no. 1474 of 3 September 2021), annually establishing the boundaries of the area where the disease is present and the phytosanitary measures to be adopted.
In Trentino, since this phytoplasma is widespread throughout the territory, albeit in a punctiform manner, the delimited area where eradication measures are compulsory is identified over the entire provincial vineyard area.
The MANDATORY PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES are as follows:
1. Grubbing up of the plants (with immediate topping of the stumps and elimination of the shoots until the plant is completely eradicated)
a) Grubbing up of symptomatic vines. This is applied to all vines showing symptoms of phytoplasmosis (grapevine yellows) and without the need for further analytical investigations;
b) Total grubbing-up of the vine unit. This is carried out if the symptomatic plants present in the vineyard unit are numerically greater than 20% of the living plants present, including plants that have already been pruned and/or stumps that have grown back;
c) Total grubbing-up of abandoned vineyards and areas with wild vines. This is carried out on vineyard units originally intended for production where no agronomic operations and ordinary phytosanitary interventions have been carried out for at least one wine-growing year, as well as on all areas (including non-agricultural areas) where vines are present in the form of creeping and/or climbing shoots.
2. Treatments against the vector insect: at least one treatment against the vector is compulsory, in relation to the level of severity and the phytosanitary risk of spreading the disease, which emerges from annual monitoring, in accordance with the indications given by the Technology Transfer Centre of the Edmund Mach Foundation.
3. Prohibition of grafting with non-certified nursery material: the practice of grafting vines with buds that have not been subjected to the certification system envisaged by Legislative Decree no. 16 of 2 February 2021, and duly purchased from authorised professional operators, is prohibited throughout the provincial territory.
4. Provisions for vine nurseries, all nurserymen must subject their production to treatments against the vector that are heavier than for vines in production and given by the SFP.
5. Provisions for wine-growers' associations. The protection consortia, wine growers' associations and professional organisations of agricultural entrepreneurs are required to collaborate with the Provincial Plant Protection Service in order to help implement the eradication measures.
6. Enhanced monitoring. The Provincial Phytosanitary Service, in order to define the evolution of the presence of the disease and its vector, intensifies the investigations on the territory by carrying out the reinforced monitoring foreseen by Art. 6 of Ordinance no. 4 of 22 June 2023 through the Edmund Mach Foundation.
REFERENCE REGULATIONS.
Determination of the Director of the Agricultural Service of the Autonomous Province of Trento no. 4769 of 12 May 2025 on "Prescrizioni fitosanitarie per la lotta contro l'organismo nocivo Grapevine flavescence dorée phytoplasma associato alla Flavescenza dorata della vite nel territorio della Provincia autonoma di Trento. Year 2025."
MINISTERIAL ORDER of 22/06/2023, no. 4
Emergency phytosanitary measures to combat Grapevine flavescence doree phytoplasma in order to prevent its spread in the territory of the Italian Republic (G.U. 12/08/2023, n. 188).
Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1630 of 21 September 2022 laying down measures for the containment of flavescence dorée within certain demarcated areas