A three-year project supported by the Pierce’s Disease Glassy Winged Sharpshooter (PD/GWSS) Board will look at methods to better understand grapevine leafroll and red blotch diseases. Chair of the PD/GWSS Board, Steve McIntyre said the researchers will be using artificial intelligence technology to help with development. The project is being led by Dr. Monica Cooper, Viticulture Farm Advisor from Napa County UC Cooperative Extension.
“They have been collecting troves of data from various vineyards and they want to feed that into a supercomputer to see if that computer can identify any trends that might not be available to the naked eye,” McIntyre noted. “That could lead to ways to mitigate some of the damages and perhaps identify additional vectors or habitat in terms of cover crop or anything else like that that might be contributing to either the spread of the virulence of the disease.”
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