Summary: Gerhard Pietersen is a plant virologist in South Africa. In this interview he discusses the severe plant health and economic impacts seen in S. Africa from Grapevine leafroll disease, the importance of regional buy in to establish control programs including a successful collaboration of 50 adjoining farms in New Zealand, and new techniques to detect the virus including loop-mediated isothermal amplification and grafting sensitive red cultivars on white cultivars to use the shoot as an indicator.
