Viroids belonging to the genus Pospiviroid can cause severe symptoms in solanaceous crops including tomato and pepper, however, they often show no or only very mild symptoms in several solanaceous ornamental species. Some viroids are known to be seed transmitted and others are thought to be highly likely to be seed transmitted. Therefore, it is important to screen seed pre-planting. This is an supplementary test to the pospiviroid seed testing package. This testing is carried out on seed already tested for Potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd), Tomato chlorotic dwarf viroid (TCDVd), Columnea latent viroid and Tomato apical stunt viroid by real time RT-PCR (TaqMan).

1500 seeds are tested by real time RT-PCR (TaqMan) for Pepper chat fruit viroid (PCFVd) or Citrus exocortis viroid (CEVd).

Please state which additional test is required in the notes section when placing the order online. If this test is required as a standalone test i.e. Just PCFVd or CEVd, please contact us to discuss. Please also note that the same sample of seeds from the Pospiviroid seed testing package can be used, so no requirement for any further samples to be sent to us.

Pospiviroid seed positive test

When sending plant pathogens and invertebrate samples from outside England and Wales for testing please email the Crop health team (crophealth@fera.co.uk) who will issue you with the relevant Letter of Authority to ensure your samples are not delayed upon entry to the UK.