Californian agriculture officials have discovered a potentially devastating tomato virus, and are worried the disease will infect tomatoes in the rest of the state.
Tomato yellow leaf curl virus is already established in Florida, Georgia and Central America. Agricultural officials hope to keep the disease from getting a foothold here. The virus attacks tomato plants and keeps them from bearing fruit.
University of California researcher Bob Gilbertson stressed that there are ways to fight an outbreak, but it would be costly.
“If this virus were to get established here, and that's a big if, this would be one way that we could minimise the problem by going to these resistant varieties and by breeding varieties that are better suited for our conditions,” he explained.
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