US army may have killed Italian trees

Nature ^ | 4/6/04 | Helen R. Pilcher

[LibWhacker]

The US Army may have unwittingly killed hundreds of pine trees in an Italian hunting estate. Genetic analysis suggests that the trees were infected with an American fungus, imported by US troops during the Second World War.

The Presidential Estate of Castelporziano, not far from Rome, was once home to 60 square kilometres of native Italian flora, including the Italian stone pine (Pinus pinea). Twenty years ago, estate staff noticed that the pine were beginning to rot. Today, a 100-metre barren gash reminds them where the trees once stood.

In an attempt to track down the killer, researchers studied DNA from fungi at the base of infected trees. The fungi were an American form of Heterobasidion annosum, a pest that makes trees rot from the inside out, the team report in Mycological Research1.

The fungi probably arrived with the US army, says team member Matteo Garbelotto from the University of California, Berkeley. American troops set up camp on the estate shortly after capturing Rome in 1944.

The pathogen probably stowed away in transport crates or other military equipment made from wood from infected trees, the researchers say.

"It's a plausible explanation," says tree pathologist Joan Webber from the UK Forestry Commission. H. annosum spreads from tree root to root, and can travel through the air as spores - but it's unlikely spores blew across the Atlantic.

The findings sound a warning bell for future military operations. "When planning military operations abroad, there is a need and a responsibility to check for potential microorganisms that could be introduced into foreign lands, and to take measures to prevent them from spreading," says Garbelotto.

Slow death

Fungal DNA taken from seven infected Castelporziano pines matched American, not European samples of the fungus, the team found.

Samples from the trees differed genetically. This shows infection occurred decades ago, giving the fungus time reproduce and generate diverse offspring.

H. annosum kills trees over many decades, says forest patholgist Jan Stenlid from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden. So trees infected in 1944 might not have displayed symptoms until the 1980s.

Researchers are watching to see if the disease spreads beyond the estate. The fungus can infect pine, fir and spruce trees.

The disease can be contained, says Stenlid, by spraying anti-fungal agents onto exposed stumps or bark to block the fungi's point of entry into the tree. When conifers are pruned or thinned, their exposed surfaces can be treated immediately to lower the risk of infection, says Stenlid.

[Chewbacca]

We should be blaming the Europeans for all the Norway rats they transported over here in their rat infested ships from 1500's-1900's.

[AngryJawa]

Our military is involved in major action in Iraq TODAY...and I'm supposed to worry about THIS?

Right.

[AngryJawa]

Our military is involved in major action in Iraq TODAY...and I'm supposed to worry about THIS?

Right.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[Ladysmith]

So burn them down and plant some friggin' seeds... You're still free, aren't you?!

...brother!...

[Carry_Okie]

The findings sound a warning bell for future military operations. "When planning military operations abroad, there is a need and a responsibility to check for potential microorganisms that could be introduced into foreign lands, and to take measures to prevent them from spreading," says Garbelotto.

Fine. We'll do that just as soon as Europe sterilizes all the goods it ships to the US. After Dutch Elm disease, Afghan pine beetle, Japanese beetle, starthistle, knapweed, sudden oak death, botryospheria, nobody knows how many grasses, and Italian thistle (of which I weed thousands every year), I've just about had it with Eurasian pests.

[LibWhacker]

Exactly! The ingratitude of these Eurotwits is breathtaking.

[johnb838]

reparations. now. at least 100 lira.

[LibWhacker]

Actually it was more like 40 years . . . The trees only started dying 20 years ago. LOL, these people are OUTTA THEIR MINDS with their hatred of America. Pi** on 'em.

[LibWhacker]

lol

[LibWhacker]

Now, now, now . . . We're not supposed to actually use our brains while evaluating environazi claims!

[Cold Heat]

Back when I was importing machine parts from Europe, we often had major delays in the shipments due to diseased wood in the crates that came from the area.

These diseases are responsible for the majority of our own current crop of various blights that affect our trees today and they originated in Europe, not here!

Send the bill back, change the name on it and tack on about three trillion Euros for general principle.

They owe the U.S. more than we can count.

[LibWhacker]

. . . and made a recommendation on future prevention, that's all.

Ridiculous recommendation, if we want to be accurate.

[LibWhacker]

Not the same at all. This bit of recklessness on our part killed some trees in the garden of a prancing Italian prince! Doncha see the difference? . . . Not one Norway rat ever bothered an American prince. </sarcasm> :-)

[LibWhacker]

They owe the U.S. more than we can count.

No good deed goes unpunished. I hope we pause and remember that next time we're feeling inclined to help an ungrateful world.

[Heyworth]

In the 1940s the Italians were doing some "exporting" themselves. Yenakievo, East Ukraine has a big Italian military cemetary.

I had a distant cousin who disappeared on the Russian front with the Italian army in 1944.

[DustyMoment]

The author studied the problem and made a recommendation on future prevention, that's all. That's his job as a scientist.

As a scientist, it might be useful for him to consider the possibility that the disease killing the trees could have been brought into Italy via other means. Sure, I know that in the 60 years since the war ended, NO ONE has bothered to visit from any other country due to the stranglehold that America has on Italy. In this day and age of easy, quick global travel, couldn't there be the tiniest possibility that the disease might have arrived by other means?

If the Italians think that this will qualify them for "reparations", they should start looking for another teat to suck - ours are quickly drying up.

As a "scientist", the author practices Kyoto thinking and, doubtless, believes in global warming.

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[pointsal]

Hep me.....where's Mussolini when you need him?

[F.J. Mitchell]

Unlikely the Spores blew across the atlantic? Then how come we are told that West Nile disease blew across that same Atlantic to the USA?

They could have caught the disease from some amorous tree hugger, possibly a pineophile. They can't help it though-they are born that way.