Virus positive plants, Agdia Immunostrip.

[goodgollymissmolly]

I think you might be making some assumptions about the reliability. It's true that Agdia doesn't make reliability data too public but I'd bet it's available if requested.

This is a well run, seemingly technically capable company. Not a fly by night outfit. I do agree that reliability data should be more public.

[Cym Ladye]

...."Two points...first the notification of false positives on Agdia strips applies only to the testing of plants in genus Cymbidium. It specifically says that the only failures are false positives and that it does not occur on other genera...."

Goodgollymissmolly,

I think I know what you are saying here. However, it is not always easy, or even possible, to tell if your positive is false or real. As I only grow Cyms and a handful of other cool genera, I was not aware of the Phal test result. ie if you get a positive, it will be a sure positive, not the chance of a false positive. If I get a positive on a special Cym. that I question (the plant, not the test), I just test it again on another leaf for confirmation.

In any case, I have had no problem with the 003 or 004 strips on Cyms.

Now if only someone will come up with a test for the Fleck virus which is showing up more and more in Cyms. here in California, it would be greatly appreciated!@

CL

[Cym Ladye]

Originally Posted by DavidCampen

...

Actually CymMV is the bottom most line with ORSV showing between the CymMV and Control lines:
https://orders.agdia.com/Documents/m250.pdf
....

Thank you for the clarification on the lines. I have always been curious but just too lazy to research it. All I need to see is one clear extra line below the test line and the plant is in the trash!

CL

[DavidCampen]

Agdia has a new batch of CymMV/ORSV Immunostrip in stock and they have put this item back into their catalog.


https://orders.agdia.com/inventory.asp?CatId={DCCEF7A8-0167-4EBB-AA0E-A9218FCFCCF2}

[Wfuavenger]

I just got my new back order of test strips filled today. They just arrived. I have been testing away! (I try to test at least once per year when I have been adding to my collection)

I spoke with them about fleck virus several weeks ago and they said they would look into it and if more people requested it, they would make it a priority.

[DavidCampen]

I received my order of Immunostrips, Lot #5, earlier this week. I tested 8 plants today and found one, a Cattleya loddigesii, that tests positive for ORSV.

This was not an inexpensive plant, I paid $50 for a flowering size plant from a well known vendor in Florida. I tested the several other plants that I got from this vendor and they all test clean.

[lepetitmartien]

The more you nurse a plant, the more it's prone to be infected. We, humans, are the main agent to infect orchids with viruses.

I may add on the Catts that a lot of old known hybrids are virused, so it'll happen one day of the other…

[DavidCampen]

I wasn't terribly surprised when this C. loddigesii tested positive for virus. I have had the plant for about 6 months and I kept looking at it wondering why it did not seem to be thriving.

On the other hand, one of the other plants that I tested yesterday was a NOID Phalaenopsis hybrid given to my wife and it tested negative for ORSV and CymMV.

[Wfuavenger]

Originally Posted by lepetitmartien

The more you nurse a plant, the more it's prone to be infected. We, humans, are the main agent to infect orchids with viruses.

I may add on the Catts that a lot of old known hybrids are virused, so it'll happen one day of the other…

That's just it. If growers and people in the culture actually try to quarantine, sterilize and have safe practices, the viruses will be minimal. If people grow from seed, it will be minimal. If large scale cloners and growers continue to mass produce infected plants and people continue to buy them, the viruses will thrive.

The US has tons of importation disease and biological measures... Why are orchid viruses not tested for at random from the importers by US Customs or the Dept. of Agriculture?

[samarak]

Amen to lepetitmartien's post. Without the numbers for false positive and false negative, it's not possible to actually calculate the probability that a plant is virused. I'm not (necessarily) doubting the efficacy or usefulness of the tests - I just want to know.

Thanks to goodgollymissmolly for the pointer to the IPA article which sounds like good reading.

Steve