Can weeds spread ToBRFV to tomato plants?

The country's ONPF recently informed the EPPO Secretariat about this first finding of ToBRFV in a 2.5-hectare greenhouse that produced tomato fruits (Solanum lycopersicum) in the municipality of Levice. As revealed by the EPPO: "The seed originated in the Netherlands, and the seedlings were grown by an Austrian company."

The seed is the vector that could be considered, a priori, as a determinant in the transmission of the disease. However, a study published in 2022 by scientists from the University of Jordan and the Institute for the Sustainable Protection of Plants-National Research Council (IPSP-CNR) of Italy also puts the focus on the role that the weeds that host the virus have in the epidemiology of the disease.

"Tomato brown rough fruit virus (ToBRFV) was first described in tomatoes grown in greenhouses in the Jordan Valley in 2015. Since then, this virus has been detected every year in tomato growing areas in Jordan," the authors of the article published in MDPI stated. "From February 2019 to November 2021, weeds were collected in tomato fields and greenhouses in the Jordan Valley and highlands in major tomato growing areas. A wide range of weed species (30 plant species corresponding to 16 families) were found in tomato crops, and most of the plants collected were asymptomatic (with some exceptions showing yellowing, stunting, mosaic or mottling)."

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