RE: Mosaic Virus....

Ethan,

If you have confirmed that it is type 2 WMV through a pathological lab, then
aphids are the cause. They don't even need to feed. If an aphid arrives in
your patch after feeding on an infected host plant, it needs on make the
puncture of your plant to cause infection. If you dowsed the aphid with
Warrior & it dies seconds later, the plant would still come down with the
Virus. Transmission time is estimated at 6 seconds.

Clipped from the source I listed previously:

"All five vine crop mosaic viruses are transmitted by insects. CMV, ZYMV,
WMV-2 and PRSV-W are transmitted primarily by the green peach aphid and the
melon aphid. SQMV is transmitted by the striped cucumber beetle and spotted
cucumber beetle and also through seed, but only at a very low rate. In most
cases these insects acquire the virus by feeding on weeds or other vine
crops that are infected. The insects then feed on non-infected vine crops
and in the process of this feeding transmit the virus to the host plant. In
the case of the green peach and melon aphid, the insect carries the virus on
its probing mouthparts and the aphid only needs to probe the plant to
transmit the virus. Feeding by the aphid is not necessary. Once the insect
probes one plant, it can move onto the next, probing and infecting as it
goes. The more aphids present, the quicker and more complete the virus
spread. By this process, large acreages can become infected quickly."

_____end clip______________________________

Now from : http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3109.html


"Transmission:
Transmitted by a vector; an insect; Myzus persicae, Aphis craccivora; at
least 29 species of aphids transmit watermelon mosaic 2 potyvirus (Edwardson
and Christie, 1986); Aphididae. Virus transmitted by mechanical inoculation;
not transmitted by seed."

________end second clip______________________

Once infection has taken place in the field, we can spread the disease by
improper sanitation i.e., tools, boots, rain, etc. 

But the causal pathogen needs a live host to survive. So once a frost hits
your patch, the Virus is no longer able to live there.


CT GS&PGA
Stephen Jepsen
823 Nichols Ave.
Stratford, CT 06614-3930
Office 203-378-0191
Fax     203-378-7087
Mobile 914-260-7176
www.ctpumpkin.com

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