Pome Fruit Viruses in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Field surveys and laboratory tests were carried out to assess the sanitary status of pome fruit trees in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Field surveys were carried out in 10 orchards, two nurseries and one varietal collectione during 2005-2006. A total of 65 apple and 51 pear cultivars were tested for the presence of the four most important pome fruit viruses: Apple chlorotic leaf spot virus (ACLSV), Apple stem pitting virus (ASPV), Apple stem grooving virus (ASGV) and Apple mosaic virus (ApMV). The most frequent viruses of apple were ACLSV (72%) and ASPV (69%), whereas for pear those were ASGV (69%) and ACLSV (64%). Biological indexing was more reliable than ELISA for virus detection. Multiplex RT-PCR results of 20 randomly selected apple cultivars were in line with biological indexing.This is the first report of the presence of ACLSV, ASPV, ASGV and ApMV in Bosnia and Herzegovina in pome fruits.