Dothistroma needle blight (DNB) caused by Dothistroma septosporum and Dothistroma
pini is a damaging disease of pine in many countries. The disease led to the abandonment
of planting susceptible Pinus species in parts of Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe
and North America. Although the disease can be effectively controlled using copper
fungicides, this chemical is only routinely applied in forests in New Zealand and
Australia.
Other management tactics aimed at making conditions less favourable for
disease development, such as thinning or pruning, may be effective on some, but not
all, sites. Disease avoidance, by planting non-susceptible
species, is the most common
form of management in Europe, along with deployment of hosts with strong disease
resistance. Although D. septosporum is present almost everywhere Pinus is grown, it is
important that an effort is maintained to exclude introductions of new haplotypes that
could increase virulence or enable host resistance to be overcome. A global strategy to
exclude