Occurrence of barley yellow mosaic and barley mild mosaic bymoviruses in Greece

In March 1991, large chlorotic patches appeared in an autumn-sown barley crop growing near Thessaloniki, Greece. Leaves had characteristic mosaic symptoms and immunosorbent electron microscopy and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay confirmed the presence of both soil-borne mosaic viruses of barley, barley mild mosaic and barley yellow mosaic bymoviruses. In the following year, similar symptoms appeared in a crop at Souroti, 30 km east of Thessaloniki but the disease has not been found in other areas of Macedonia. This report is the first record of these viruses from Greece and is the most southerly European record.