Pacific Pests, Pathogens, Weeds & Pesticides - Online edition

Pacific Pests, Pathogens, Weeds & Pesticides

Tomato spotted wilt (481)


Click/tap on images to enlarge
Summary

  • Worldwide distribution. In Australia, Cook Islands, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea. Many important crops and weeds are hosts.
  • Major virus disease of tomato (TSWV). Plants stunted; leaves drooping, bronzed with dark spots and streaks (also on petioles and stems). Fruits with distortions, yellow, black or ring spots, or mosaic patterns. Symptoms variable (age, host, temperature).
  • Spread: thrips. TSWV survives in volunteer plants and weeds.
  • Biosecurity: see Plant Health Australia contingency plans for thrips transmitted diseases: (https://www.planthealthaustralia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Thrips-transmitted-viruses-CP-2011.pdf).
  • Biocontrol: commercial strains of Beauveria fungus.
  • Cultural control: use certified seed; check seedlings for symptoms; weed around nurseries and crops (aim for 10m weed-free area). (Note, grasses are poor hosts of TSWV.) Avoid overlapping or consecutive tomato crops, use a rotation with non-hosts; avoid excessive nitrogen; monitor with sticky traps; rogue plants with symptoms; collect and destroy debris after harvest.
  • Chemical control: use soap, white or horticultural oils; in Australia, abamectin, spirotetramat, spinosad, spinetoram, Beauveria bassiana, are registered. Avoid broad-spectrum insecticides.

Common Name

Tomato spotted wilt

Scientific Name

Tomato spotted wilt; it is caused by Tomato spotted wilt tospovirus. The abbreviation is TSWV.


AUTHOR Grahame Jackson
Information from CABI (2020) Tomato spotted wilt virus (tomato spotted wilt). Crop Protection Compendium. (https://www.cabi.org/cpc/datasheet/54086); and Tomato spotted wilt virus in potatoes (2020) Agriculture Victoria. (https://agriculture.vic.gov.au/biosecurity/plant-diseases/vegetable-diseases/tomato-spotted-wilt-virus-in-potatoes); and Sherwood JL, et al. (2009) Tomato spotted wilt. The Plant Health Instructor. APS. DOI: 10.1094/PHI-I-2003-0613-02; and from Schwartz HF, Gent DH (2016) Tomato spotted wilt. High Plains Integrated Pest Management. BugwoodWiki. (https://wiki.bugwood.org/HPIPM:Tomato_Spotted_Wilt). Photo 1 Don Ferrin, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Bugwood.org. Photos 2,3,6,7 Gerald Holmes, Strawberry Center, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Bugwood.org. Photos 4&5 William M. Brown Jr., Bugwood.org.

Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project HORT/2016/185: Responding to emerging pest and disease threats to horticulture in the Pacific islands, implemented by the University of Queensland and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved.