From 29 November to 1 December the BIOVEXO project consortium held a meeting in Mallorca, Spain. Biovexo is a project supported by the “Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking” to explore innovative biopesticides targeting X. fastidiosa. The meeting served as an opportunity to discuss the project progress and biocontrol solutions, and to visit one of the SMEs members of the consortium, the family farm Aimerit. Preventive and curative treatments on Aimerit farm are tackling X. fastidiosa in almonds and olives. BIOVEXO is testing biocontrol solutions for infection prevention and cure in Aimerit through treatments on 288 olive and 160 almond trees (half for prevention, half for cure). More information on the meeting in Mallorca and visit to the Aimerit farm will be published soon on the BIOVEXO blog. 
The Balearic Islands host the greatest Xylella fastidiosa genetic diversity in Europe. The bacterium was detected for the first time in 2016. Since then, various outbreaks of different X. fastidiosa subspecies have emerged in the archipelago, mainly in wild and cultivated olive, vines, and almond trees. Subspecies fastidiosa and multiplex were identified in Mallorca, the multiplex in Menorca, and pauca in Ibiza. Studies found that in the Balearic Islands the multiplex strain was already damaging almond trees in 1993 – 20 years before the first official detection of X. fastidiosa in Europe – but its symptoms were mistaken for other diseases or drought stress.