Presence and Distribution of Prune dwarf virus in Stone Fruit Orchards in Fars Province, Iran

Prune dwarf virus (PDV) belongs to the genus Ilarvirus, Family Bromoviridae. This virus is one of the most important pathogens of stone fruit trees worldwide. To detect and determine the distribution of Prune dwarf virus in the orchards of stone fruit trees in Fars Province, 679 leaf samples showing symptoms of deformation, twisting and mosaic were collected from peach, plum, apricot and almond trees during two crop years, 2014 and 2015. The samples were tested by DAS-ELISA for the presence of PDV. The results of ELISA test showed that nearly all of the orchards are infected (213 out of 679 samples). According to the results, infection percentages were 19.1%, 45.92%, 10%, 38.57%, 21.05%, 9.23% and 10.71% in Shiraz, Kavar, Jahrom, Zarghan, Sepidan, Neyriz and Sarvestan, respectively. Also, infection percentages among symptomatic samples were 46.07, 14.52, 38.75, 9.84 and 5.45% in peach, nectarine, plum, almond and apricot, respectively. This is the first report of Prune dwarf virus from Fars province and nectarine as host from Iran.