Vittorio Rossi

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore | UNICATT

Powdery mildew (PM) disease causes serious losses in Mediterranean vineyards, where suitable environmental conditions promote conidial infections. The frequency and intensity of these infections are directly linked to the amount of primary Erysiphe necator inoculum, i.e., the chasmothecia embedded in the trunk. In this study, we set up a protocol t...

Plant pests may pose a significant threat to global agriculture, natural ecosystems and biodiversity, causing severe ecological and economic damage. Identifying regions more susceptible to pest introductions is crucial for developing effective prevention, early detection and outbreak response strategies. While historical data on pest introductions...

Background: Mating disruption (MD) is a worthwhile technique for the control of Lobesia botrana and Eupoecilia ambiguella in central Europe and Mediterranean areas. MD efficacy is affected by the pheromone release (PR), which in turn is influenced by environmental conditions. Methods: The effect of weather conditions on PR was evaluated under four...

Despite national and international efforts to prevent non‐indigenous species’ introductions, the spread of transboundary plant pests has increased dramatically in recent years, and it seems inevitable that many more species will enter the EU in the future. Identifying plant pests’ entry points may offer some early insights to prevent new plant pest...

Plant resistance inducers (PRIs) are promising alternatives to chemical fungicides. Their effectiveness against grapevine downy mildew (DM) has been demonstrated for leaves, yet research on berry clusters is limited. We investigated the efficacy of six PRIs on clusters of cv. Barbera and Merlot from the end of flowering (growth stage GS 69) to frui...

Walnut blight, caused by Xanthomonas arboricola pv. juglandis (Xaj), occurs worldwide in almost all areas where the Persian walnut (Juglans regia) is grown, causing significant reductions in nut yield via defoliation and fruit drop. The disease control relies on the calendar-based, repeated use of chemical bactericides, negatively impacting economi...

Currently, fungicides are widely used to control grapevine foliar diseases. This study explored the possibility of decreasing the use of fungicides to control these diseases using cover crops in the inter-row of vineyards. In small-scale experiments, we found that cover crops (namely horseradish Armoracia rusticana) were able to (i) reduce the numb...

Sour rot (SR) is a grapevine disease complex that is not completely understood in its etiology and epidemiology. Recently, SR has received special attention due to its increasing economic importance due to crop losses and reduced wine quality. In this study, the fungal and bacterial microbiota of healthy (i.e., without rot symptoms) and rotten (i.e...

Phomopsis cane and leaf spot (PCLS) disease, affecting grapevines (Vitis vinifera and Vitis spp.), has been historically associated with Diaporthe ampelina. Typical disease symptoms, comprising bleaching and black pycnidia, have also been associated with other Diaporthe spp. In this study, we conducted a molecular identification of the Diaporthe is...

Sour rot (SR) is a disease complex that affects grape berries during ripening and can cause severe yield losses and deterioration of wine quality. The etiology and epidemiology of the disease remain uncertain, which has severely limited the development of specific, targeted management strategies. In this study, a network meta-analysis was applied t...

Plant pests pose a significant threat to global agriculture, natural ecosystems and biodiversity, causing severe ecological and economic damage. Identifying regions more susceptible to pest introductions is crucial for developing effective prevention, early detection and outbreak response strategies. While historical data on pest introductions in t...

Downy mildew (DM), caused by the oomycete Plasmopara viticola , is one of the most important diseases of grapevine worldwide. Control of DM still largely relies on fungicide applications even though the call for agricultural sustainability makes of paramount importance the exploitation of human- and eco-friendly alternatives. Partially resistant va...

Sour rot (SR) is one of the major diseases affecting grapevine berries, causing severe yield losses and deterioration of wine quality. SR is caused by an etiologic complex of microorganisms, including yeasts, bacteria, and filamentous fungi. This systematic review focuses on the etiology, epidemiology, and control of SR. A total of 74 papers publis...

BACKGROUND Biocontrol agents (BCAs) are alternatives to synthetic fungicides with low risk to the environment and human health. Although several studies on the biocontrol of gray mold in vineyards have been performed, it is necessary to improve the usage of BCAs in fields conditions. Therefore, in the present study, BCAs were used both in calendar‐...

Plant resistance inducers (PRIs) are of increasing interest for disease control in sustainable viticulture, but their efficacy in vineyards is still under investigation. We studied the effects of four commercial PRIs, of natural and microbial origin, on the development of powdery mildew (PM) on grapevine leaves over a 3-year period. Disease and spo...

A more sustainable control of plant diseases is needed for the development of less intensive farming systems with reduced inputs of chemicals, including pesticides, and reduced use of natural resources. Integrated pest management (IPM) is currently the most effective method for sustainable disease control. IPM has higher complexity than conventiona...

White rot, caused by the fungus Coniella diplodiella , is an important but poorly studied disease that mainly affects grapevine clusters. White rot control typically involves the repeated application of fungicides, which may be unjustified in some cases given that the key period of berry susceptibility to infection remains unclear and controversial...

The sap-sucking leafhopper Scaphoideus titanus plays a major role in spreading Grapevine flavescence dorée (FD) phytoplasma. The FD management relies on vector control and eradication of infected plants. A timely application of insecticides is based on insect monitoring; mathematical models are helpful for guiding monitoring of S. titanus and sched...

Plant resistance inducers (PRIs) are potential alternatives for controlling grapevine downy (DM) and powdery (PM) mildews in vineyards. In a 3-year field study, we evaluated the field efficacy of six commercial PRIs of chemical and natural origin against DM and PM diseases when applied at designated vine growth stages in a mixture with low doses of...

White rot, caused by the fungus Coniella diplodiella, can severely reduce grapevine yields worldwide. Currently, white rot control mainly relies on fungicides applied on a calendar basis or following hailstorms that favor disease outbreak; however, the control achieved with this strategy is often inconsistent or otherwise unsatisfactory. Realizing...

Grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs) are among the most devastating grapevine diseases globally. GTDs are caused by multiple fungi from various taxa, which release spores into the vineyard and infect wood tissue, mainly through wounds caused by viticultural operations. The timing of operations to avoid infection is critical concerning the periodicity of...

World trade has greatly increased in recent decades, together with a higher risk of introducing non-indigenous pests. Introduction trends show no sign of saturation, and it seems likely that many more species will enter and establish in new territories in the future. A key challenge in analysing pest invasion patterns is the paucity of historical d...

Grapevine trunk diseases are caused by a complex of fungi that belong to different taxa, which produce different spore types and have different spore dispersal mechanisms. It is commonly accepted that rainfall plays a key role in spore dispersal, but there is conflicting information in the literature on the relationship between rain and spore trapp...

Agriculture needs to reduce its current dependence toward pesticides while reducing crop losses caused by pests and ensuring food security; Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is considered the most appropriate approach to achieve the goal. More specifically, growers should use tools that enable informed decisions on whether and when crop protection i...

Grape white rot can lead to considerable yield losses in viticultural areas worldwide, which is principally caused by Coniella diplodiella. The fungus overwinters in berry mummies above the soil or on the trellis, and produces pycnidia and conidia that serve as primary inoculum. However, little is known about the temporal dynamics and dispersal pat...

The growth of four commercial biocontrol agents (BCAs: Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (BAD), Aureobasidium pullulans (APD), Metschnikowia fructicola (MFN), and Trichoderma atroviride (TAS)) was evaluated using turbidimetric assays on artificial substrates mimicking the chemical berry composition at four stages: pea-sized berries, veraison, softening, a...

Plant resistance inducers (PRIs) harbor promising potential for use in downy mildew (DM) control in viticulture. Here, the effects of six commercial PRIs on some epidemiological components of Plasmopara viticola (Pv) on grapevine leaves were studied over 3 years. Disease severity, mycelial colonization of leaf tissue, sporulation severity, producti...

Fungi in the genus Colletotrichum cause serious pre- and post-harvest losses to several agricultural crops worldwide. Through a systematic literature review, we retrieved the published information on Colletotrichum anthracnose diseases on different host plants and developed a mechanistic model incorporating the main stages of the pathogen’s life cy...

The use of biocontrol agents (BCAs) represents a promising alternative to conventional methods for the management of gray mold in vineyards during the berry ripening stage. The main advantages of BCAs are the short preharvest interval and lack of chemical fungicide residues in wine. In this study, eight commercial BCAs (based on different Bacillus...

Introduction Pruning wounds are the main entry points for fungi causing grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs). Several studies identified factors influencing the temporal dynamics of wound susceptibility, which include the fungal species and inoculum dose, weather conditions, grape variety, pruning date, and so forth. Here, we conducted a quantitative an...

This review gives a perspective of selected advances made since the middle of the 20th century in plant disease modelling, and the associated increase in the number of models published during that time frame. This progress can be mainly attributed to advances in (i) sensors and automatic environmental data collection technology, (ii) instrumentatio...

A plant disease model is a simplified representation of the relationships between pathogens, crops, and the environment that cause the development of epidemics over time and/or space. This chapter describes the different modelling approaches, focusing on fundamental (process-based) models for application in crop protection. The development of proce...

Resistance to downy mildew (DM) and powdery mildew (PM) contributes to sustainable vineyard management by reducing the diseases and the need for fungicide applications. Resistant varieties vary in their degree of resistance to DM and PM, and in their susceptibility to other diseases. As a consequence, fungicide use may differ among varieties depend...

Grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs) are serious threats in all viticultural areas of the world, and their management is always complex and usually inadequate. Fragmented and inconsistent information on the epidemiology and environmental requirements of the causal fungi is among the reasons for poor disease control. We therefore conducted a quantitative...

Grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs) are serious threats worldwide and are difficult to control, in part because the environmental requirements for epidemiological processes of the causal fungi are poorly understood. We therefore investigated the effects of temperature and moisture duration on spore germination of four fungi associated with two GTDs (Es...

The effective integration of BCAs into a Botrytis bunch rot (BBR) management program should not only include understanding factors, such as berry growth stages and environmental conditions (i.e., temperature, T, and relative humidity, RH), for the pathogen growth and infection, but also for the colonization and the efficacy of the BCA. In this stu...

Sour rot (SR) is a grapevine disease complex that is not completely understood for both etiology and epidemiology. In recent years, SR has received special attention due to its increasing economic importance due to the heavy crop losses and reduced wine quality it can cause. In this study, the bacterial and fungal microbiota of healthy and affected...

The fungal genus Colletotrichum includes plant pathogens that cause substantial economic damage to horticultural, ornamental, and fruit tree crops worldwide. Here, we conducted a systematic literature review to retrieve and analyze the metadata on the influence of temperature on four biological processes: (i) mycelial growth, (ii) conidial germinat...

In a quickly growing world, there is increasing demand for a secure food supply, a reduction in the intensive use of natural resources, and the enhancement of sustainability for future long-term maintenance. In this regard, plant health, including fruit and foliar diseases, which can cause a vast amount of crop loss, potentially has a huge effect o...

The fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum causes serious losses to several agricultural crops worldwide. By using systems analysis, we retrieved the available knowledge concerning S. sclerotiorum from the literature and then analysed and synthesized the data to develop a mechanistic, dynamic, weather-driven model for the prediction of epidemics on differ...

Plant diversity has the potential to conserve beneficials and thereby naturally controlling arthropod pests. Beneficials’ activity can be increased by pollen-rich plant species. Here we aimed to develop innovative viticultural systems that naturally control arthropod pests, by increasing plant diversity within vineyards planting of selected cover c...

Stem rust (or black rust) of wheat, caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt), is a re-emerging, major threat to wheat production worldwide. Here, we retrieved, analyzed, and synthetized the available information about Pgt to develop a mechanistic, weather-driven model for predicting stem rust epidemics caused by uredospores. The ability of...

Phomopsis cane and leaf spot (PCLS), known in Europe as “excoriose,” is an important fungal disease of grapevines caused by Diaporthe spp., and most often by Diaporthe ampelina (synonym Phomopsis viticola). PCLS is re-emerging worldwide, likely due to climate change, changes in the management of downy mildew from calendar- to risk-based criteria th...

Botrytis bunch rot (BBR) is one of the main diseases affecting grapevines, which require adequate control, often based on routine application of fungicides at the end of flowering (A), pre- bunch closure (B), veraison (C), and before harvest (D). This simple, calendar-based scheduling of fungicides is at odds with the complexity of Botrytis cinerea...

In this work, we developed a systematic map to identify and catalogue the literature pertaining to disease modelling for agricultural crops worldwide. Searches were performed in 2021 in the Web of Science and Scopus for papers reporting any type of disease model for 103 crops. In total, 768 papers were retrieved, and their descriptive metadata were...

Beside the well-known fungal pathologies, grapevine virus diseases are of major importance in grapegrowing areas, also due to the limited knowledge by the professionals of the sector. To face this problem, the PAThOGEN training program was developed, with the aims of: (i) building a high-quality Vocational and Education Training program, (ii) impro...

Ripe rot caused by Colletotrichum spp. is a serious threat in many vineyards, and its control relies mainly on the repeated use of fungicides. A mechanistic, dynamic model for the prediction of grape ripe rot epidemics was developed by using information and data from a systematic literature review. The model accounts for i) the production and matur...

Stem rust, or black rust, of wheat, caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici, has recently re‐emerged in several parts of the world, with epidemics occurring in Eastern Africa, as well as Northern and Southern Europe. Damage mechanisms from disease dynamically affect the physiology of the crop as it grows and develops, and as the epidemic progres...

Mycotoxins present a global food safety threat of our feed and food. Mycotoxins are toxic metabolites of certain fungi in agricultural products that are harmful to animal and human health. The presence of mycotoxins in these products depends on a variety of management and environmental factors in the field, during storage and/or processing of feed...

The cultivation of grape varieties with partial resistance to disease may become an important component for disease management in the future. The impact of partial resistance on downy mildew epidemics according to its components have not been explored so far. This work aims to model, understand, and quantitatively analyse the effect of partial resi...

Grapevine white rot, caused by Coniella diplodiella, can severely damage berries during ripening. The effects of temperature and wetness duration on the infection severity of C. diplodiella were investigated by artificially inoculating grape berries through via infection pathways (uninjured and injured berries, and through pedicels). The effect of...

Fungicides used to control Fusarium head blight (FHB) are commonly applied at the wheat growth stage considered to be most susceptible, i.e., anthesis. We compared the efficacy of the most commonly used fungicide groups that were applied following two strategies: (i) at pre-defined growth stages, from the first half of heading to the end of floweri...

The BIOVINE project is developing natural solutions based on plant diversity to control pests and reduce pesticide dependency. Many management strategies have been developed against important grapevine pathogens, but the effects of soil cover vegetation or organic mulching against spore dispersal, acting as a barrier, have been scarcely explored in...

Phomopsis cane and leaf spot disease (PCLS) is one of the most important grapevine diseases in Montenegro and is re-emerging in other European areas, including Italy. It occurs every year and causes considerable damage. Recently, a bilateral project for ‘Italy-Montenegro Joint Science And Technology Cooperation’ in the area Agriculture and Food Sci...

(1) Background. An extensive survey of grapevine-sown cover crops and spontaneous weed flora was conducted from 2019 to 2020 in organic vineyards in six European countries (France, Italy, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland). Our main objective was to detect and identify the presence of Cylindrocarpon-like asexual morphs species associated with b...

Olive anthracnose (OA), caused by Colletotrichum spp., is the most important disease affecting olive fruit. Key elements of OA epidemiology are known, but no tools are available for predicting OA development in the orchard as influenced by agronomic factors and environmental conditions. In this work, a long-term dataset (covering 12 years from 2002...

BIOVINE 2 • BIOVINE project is developing natural solutions to reduce pesticide dependence. • The aim of the project is to develop new viticultural system based on increased plant diversity (e.g. cover crops) within and/or around (e.g. hedges, endings) vineyards by planting selected species to control:  Arthropods  Soil-borne pests (e.g.fungi, ne...

Pest risk assessments are required to take phytosanitary measures to protect plant health. In the European Union, the Scientific Panel on Plant Health (PLH) of the European Food Safety Authority was established in 2006 as the reference body for risk assessment in the plant health area. Risk assessments address four steps: introduction, establishmen...

The BIOVINE project has developed natural solutions based on plant diversity to control pests and reduce pesticide dependence. Application of polyculture cover crops in organic vineyards may possibly increase resistance to pests and invasive species. In this study aim was to develop innovative viticultural systems based on increased plant diversity...

Phomopsis cane and leaf spot (PCLS) is an important disease of grapevines, which is mainly caused by Diaporthe ampelina. Dispersal dynamics of D. ampelina spores were investigated in two vineyards, one in North Italy and one in Montenegro, by using spore samplers that collected alpha and beta conidia from rain water running off from PCLS-affected c...

A mechanistic model was developed to predict secondary infections of Plasmopara viticola and their severity as influenced by environmental conditions; the model incorporates the processes of sporangia production and survival on downy mildew (DM) lesions, dispersal and deposition, and infection. The model was evaluated against observed data (collect...

Ascochyta blight caused by Ascochyta rabiei is an important disease of chickpea. By using systems analysis, we retrieved and analyzed the published information on A. rabiei to develop a mechanistic, weather-driven model for the prediction of Ascochyta blight epidemics. The ability of the model to predict primary infections was evaluated using publi...

Grapevine anthracnose caused by Elsinoë ampelina is a serious threat in many vineyards, and its control requires repeated application of fungicides, usually on a calendar basis. A better understanding of the pathogen life cycle would help growers to manage anthracnose more safely and effectively. After conducting a systematic literature search of g...