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Comparison of viral infection risk between organic and conventional crops of tomato in Spain

European Journal of Plant Pathology volume 155, pages 1145–1154 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

The harmful effects of conventional agriculture on the environment and human health have been an increasing concern, resulting in the search for alternative and more sustainable agricultural systems in the last decades. Organic farming is the fastest growing system worldwide, but there is a controversial debate on the ability of the agroecological practices to cope with diseases and pests and produce food for the world population. However, comparative studies on the effect of organic farming on plant disease are almost non-existent particularly concerning plant virus diseases. In this work, a survey of Tomato mosaic virus (ToMV), Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) was performed in tomato crops under organic or conventional management by sampling 40 small farms in Eastern Spain. ToMV had the highest incidence whereas few plants were infected by CMV and none by TSWV. Viral infection risk was estimated as the probability of a plant being infected by at least one of the three viruses or by each virus separately according to a Bayesian logistic regression model. Our analysis showed that the infection risk by these viruses was lower in organic than in conventional farms in two non-consecutive years.

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Acknowledgments

E.L.H. was the recipient of a predoctoral fellowship FPU from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports. We thank Dr. Isabel Font for providing ToMV- and CMV-infected plant material and Dr. José Guerri for critical suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departament d’Estadística i Investigació Operativa, Facultat de Matemàtiques, Universitat de València, 46100, Burjassot, Spain

    E. Lázaro & C. Armero

  2. Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias, 46113, Moncada, Valencia, Spain

    E. Lázaro, J. Roselló, J. Serra, R. Canet, L. Galipienso & L. Rubio

  3. Laboratorio de Diagnóstico Fitopatológico-Virología, Generalitat Valenciana, 46460, Silla, Spain

    M. J. Muñoz

Authors
  1. E. Lázaro
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  2. C. Armero
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  3. J. Roselló
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  4. J. Serra
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  5. M. J. Muñoz
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  6. R. Canet
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  7. L. Galipienso
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  8. L. Rubio
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to L. Rubio.

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This work was funded in part by grants RTA2013–00047-C01 from INIA co-financed with FEDER funds, MTM2016–77501-P from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and ACOMP/2015/202 from Generalitat Valenciana. The authors declare no conflict of interest. This article does not contain any work conducted on animal or human participants.

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Lázaro, E., Armero, C., Roselló, J. et al. Comparison of viral infection risk between organic and conventional crops of tomato in Spain. Eur J Plant Pathol 155, 1145–1154 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-019-01843-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-019-01843-7

Keywords

  • Tomato mosaic virus
  • Cucumber mosaic virus
  • Tomato spotted wilt virus