Article / First report of Mercurialis latent virus infecting courgette in France

Desbiez, C., Wipf-Scheibel, C., Verdin, E., Lecoq, H. (2024) First report of Mercurialis latent virus infecting courgette in France. New Disease Reports, 50 (2), e70000. https://doi.org/10.1002/ndr2.70000

Abstract: This is the first report of MeLaV in France. The virus has not been detected in recent high-throughput sequencing from crops or weeds from France (data not shown) and has not emerged as a pathogen so far. The infection observed in France in 1999, and possibly those in the Netherlands and Spain, may have resulted from transmission from neighbouring weeds or crops by pollen-feeding insects. MeLaV, sporadically infecting wild and cultivated hosts in Europe and causing severe symptoms in zucchini, may emerge as a significant pathogen and has the potential to cause important losses in favourable conditions.