Editing Chestnut blight (section)

===Infections in Europe===

In 1938, chestnut blight was first identified around [[Genoa]]. Infection quickly spread and was identified in France in 1946, Switzerland in 1951, and Greece in 1963. It has most recently been found in the UK. Due to genetic differences between the fungal populations (strains), it is likely that a second introduction of chestnut blight occurred in [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] and [[Azerbaijan]] in 1938.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Prospero |first=S |title=Discovery of a new gene pool and a high genetic diversity of the chestnut blight fungus ''Cryphonectria parasitica'' in Caucasian Georgia |journal=Infection, Genetics and Evolution|volume=20|date=December 2013 |pages=131–139|doi=10.1016/j.meegid.2013.08.009 |pmid=23994123 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rigling|first=Daniel|date=December 2018|title=Genetic and Phenotypic Characterization of ''Cryphonectria hypovirus 1'' from Eurasian Georgia|url= |journal=Viruses|volume=10 |number=12|page=687|doi=10.3390/v10120687|pmid=30513977|pmc=6315935|doi-access=free}}</ref> The fungal infections initially caused widespread tree death in Europe. However, in the early 1950s trees were identified in Italy that survived fungal infection. On these trees, the fungus caused more superficial cankers, that appeared to be healing. The milder infection outcome was due to the presence of CHV1, an [[RNA virus]] that infects ''C. parasitica''. CHV1 spread naturally throughout Europe but is also spread artificially as a biocontrol measure (particularly in France). CHV1 is currently not present in the UK, Northern France, or Eastern Georgia but an introduction for biocontrol is being considered. {{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}