THE OCCURRENCE IN PORTUGAL OF THE BACTERIAL DISEASE OF MAIZE CROPS CAUSED BY ERWINIA-CHRYSANTHEMI

A bacterial disease causing stalk rot of maize was observed in Portuga l, during the summer of 1991, in overhead sprinkler-irrigated fields. Affected plants showed symptoms of a soft rot disease and isolations m ade from infected tissues consistently yielded a bacterium. On the bas is of morphological, cultural, biochemical, physiological and patholog ical properties, the pathogen was identified as Erwinia chrysanthemi. According to biovar discrimination tests, the maize isolates were allo cated to biovars 2 and 3 of E. chrysanthemi.