Bacterial diseases of apple

Abstract

Bacterial diseases of apple are less numerous compared to fungal diseases, but under favorable conditions they can cause enormous damage. This is especially true for fire blight of apple, which can, in some years, cause complete tree death of sensitive cultivars. Fire blight has been present in Serbia for more than 30 years. Growing sensitive apple cultivars and lack of effective bactericides caused the disease to spread in a relatively short time in most of the apple fruit producing regions. Additional troublesome event for producers in Serbia is the ban on the use of antibiotics in plant protection. In addition to fire blight, this paper also describes other bacterial diseases of apple, such as crown gall, caused by Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Rhizobium rhizogenes, and bacterial dieback and canker of fruit trees, caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae. The aim of this paper is to provide the knowledge on the most important bacterial diseases of apple, their importance in apple production, epidemiology and disease symptoms, as well as protection measures in order to reduce the damage they cause.