New and Emerging Viruses of Blueberry and Cranberry

Blueberry and cranberry are fruit crops native to North America and they are well known for containing bioactive compounds that can benefit human health. Cultivation is expanding within North America and other parts of the world raising concern regarding distribution of existing viruses as well as the appearance of new viruses. Many of the known viruses of these crops are latent or asymptomatic in at least some cultivars. Diagnosis and detection procedures are often non-existent or unreliable. Whereas new viruses can move into cultivated fields from the wild, there is also the threat that devastating viruses can move into native stands of Vaccinium spp. or other native plants from cultivated fields. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of blueberry and cranberry viruses, focusing not only on those that are new but also those that are emerging as serious threats for production in North America and around the world.