The University of California, Riverside, will host a summit Oct. 4 and 5 that is focused on a disease that is decimating the citrus industry.
The second California Asian Citrus Psyllid and Huanglongbing Research and Extension Summit will bring together researchers, University of California Cooperative Extension personnel and members of the citrus industry.
They will provide updates and identify gaps that need to be addressed related to Huanglongbing, also known as citrus greening disease, a bacterial plant disease fatal to citrus trees. The disease has devastated citrus trees in Asia, South America and Florida. More recently, it has been found in Texas and California.
Session topics include: vector biology and management; pathogen and disease protection; and disease management. There will be more than 20 speakers, including eight from UC Riverside: Beth Grafton-Caldwell, Matt Daugherty, Kelsey Schall, Wenbo Ma, Hailing Jin, James Ng, Chandrika Ramadugu and Georgios Vidalakis.
There also will be tours of the USDA Germplasm Repository adjacent to the UC Riverside campus, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Mount Rubidoux Biological Control Facility, near downtown Riverside.
The summit is being held four months after UC Riverside and the California Citrus Research Foundation announced plans to build a biosafety-level 3 plant facility at UC Riverside. The lab will allow researchers to conduct work with plant pathogens that previously couldn’t be done in Southern California.
The event will be held in Room 302S in Highlander Union Building at UC Riverside. There is a $55 registration fee for all participants. The registration link is: https://webpay.ucr.edu/webpay/HOME. No onsite registration will be available.
