It has spread rapidly in Brazil, where it causes losses to citrus production. Healthy orange and CVC infected orange Symptoms. Chlorotic yellow spots appear on the leaves of affected trees. On the lower side of the leaf, lesions with extruded gum often occur opposite the chlorotic spots that are on the upper side of the leaf.
Fruits are much smaller than normal and extremely firm.
In comparative studies, blossom and fruit set occur at the same time on healthy and CVC affected trees, but normal fruit thinning does not occur on CVC affected trees and the fruits remain small but ripen earlier. Once a tree is affected by CVC, the growth rate of the tree slows, twigs and branches die back, and the canopy thins, but affected trees do not die. CVC affects most orange varieties, but is also seen on trees propagated on all common rootstocks in Brazil such as Rangpur lime, Cleopatra mandarin, and Volkamer lemon. Electron microscopy has shown that bacteria associated with CVC have the morphological and structural characteristics of Xylella fastidiosa . Several detection methods have been developed to confirm the presence of Xylella fastidiosa in diseased trees.