First report of Hop stunt viroid infecting citrus orchards in Jamaica.

Citrus fruit is one of the major traditional agricultural products of Jamaica. Fresh fruit is exported to the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Barbados but the domestic market accounts for approxi- mately 85% of production. Constraints to fruit production are mainly relatedtotreedeclinecausedbyinfectionwith Citrustristezavirus (CTV). Exocortis has been described in Jamaica since the 1970s, but group II vi- roids including Hop stunt viroid (HSVd), the causal agent of cachexia, havenotbeenreported(Naylor,1974).Cachexiaisagummingandwoodpittingdisorderofcitruswithsevereinfectionscharacterisedbystunting,chlorosisandeventualdeathofthetree(Duran-Vila etal., 2000). regions