With a little more than four years left until the major funding for research on Pierce’s Disease is scheduled to “sunset,” an extensive scientific review of the research so far has been released by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the Pierce’s Disease/Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter Board.
A panel of six professors with different scientific specialties not directly involved in P.D. research pored over 146 research projects to gauge overall progress.
The chair of the Research Scientific Advisory Panel, Dr. Roger Innes, told Wines & Vines that “great strides are being made,” but that much more work is needed before some of the many potential control methods can actually be put to use.
“In four years, we may still not be at the state where the solutions are being used out in the field,” he said.
For that reason, Innes said, the review was particularly urgent. Two purposes of the review were to anticipate time lines toward practical solutions and devise strategies for optimizing research in the time that is left.
