Evolution of the new grapevine disease of Pinot gris and of Grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV)

An emergent grapevine disease, discovered about 10 year ago, has been associated to a new virus, called Grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV). The aim of the present work was to survey the presence of both the disease and the virus in Veneto (North Eastern Italy), and the presence of the virus in Europe in the last 15 years, using molecular techniques. The visual survey in Veneto showed that the disease is present in about 70% of the investigated vineyards, with a general low occurrence of symptomatic plants. However, the increase of the number of symptomatic grapevines in 8 much damaged vineyards was around 25% per year. The virus occurs in more than 80% of the plants. Finally, our data suggest that GPGV was limited to some Eastern European countries at least before 2005, and that it spread more widely throughout Europe after 2010.