Talk:Bleeding canker of horse chestnut

A fact from Bleeding canker of horse chestnut appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 19 January 2010 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that nearly half of all horse chestnut trees in Great Britain (used by generations of children for the game of conkers) are now infected by the potentially lethal disease Bleeding Canker of Horse Chestnut?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2010/January.

Wikipedia

Disambiguation

Canker infections of horse chestnut by other pathogens also are known as "bleeding canker of horse chestnut". Example:

Brasier, C. M.; Strouts, R. G. (1976). "New records of Phytophthora on trees in Britain. I. Phytophthora root rot and bleeding canker of Horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum L.)". European Journal of Forest Pathology. 6: 129–136.

--Una Smith (talk) 15:39, 10 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the interest. It's why I included the phrase "Previous incidences of bleeding cankers on horse chestnuts were caused by other pathogens including the fungus Phytophthora." But that was 1976, and as far as I can work out, the disease which is now threatening all the horse chestnuts in GB is the Pseudomonas syringae pv. aesculi infection. All the sources I have seen all call this infection bleeding canker of horse chestnut. I'll add your ref to that sentence, buyt how else should we amend the article to make it clearer? Hallucegenia (talk) 16:58, 10 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

In North America since the 1940's "bleeding canker of horse chestnut" (and variants) has referred to Phytophthora infection. So although at present there is no disambiguation required on Wikipedia, nonetheless the page name may confuse or annoy readers. I would rename this article to Pseudomonas syringae pv. aesculi or something like that. --Una Smith (talk) 17:36, 10 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'd be reluctant to rename this article, as references in the UK to "Bleeding canker of horse chestnut" are now specifically about the Pseudomonas infection. And this interpretation is getting more news coverage, so even if we did rename this article, we would still need a Bleeding Canker of Horse Chestnut redirect.

Clearly we need to expand the single sentence on Phytophthora infection, to give a more world-wide view of the subject. Perhaps the article should have two sections, one on Phytophthora and related infections, and one on the current Pseudomonas epidemic in Europe that is threatening to wipe out the the entire species in the UK. I'll give it a go, but can I ask you to review what I say about the Phytophthora infection? I don't have ready access to 30 year old issues of forest pathology journals. Thanks in advance. Hallucegenia (talk) 20:08, 10 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

At a minimum this calls for disambiguation via hatnotes, but in light of our discussion I think a disambiguation page is in order. This article would still give the UK vernacular name in its lede. The disambiguation page would look something like this:

Bleeding canker of horse chestnut may refer to:

Phytophthora infection of horse chestnut trees in North America since 1940

Pseudomonas syringae pv. aesculi infection of horse chestnut trees in Europe since ...

--Una Smith (talk) 20:35, 10 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Judging by this, the current outbreak of this Pseudomonas was at first mistaken for Phytophthora, hence acquired the vernacular name of the older pathogen. This needs to be explained, but the explanation is as simple as "initially the outbreak was attributed to a different pathogen (Phytophthora) that was responsible for mass die-off of horse chestnut trees in the 1940s worldwide." Move all other content about Phytophthora to the other article or another new article. --Una Smith (talk) 20:55, 10 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've added a section on fungal infections. Does that address the problem? Hallucegenia (talk) 08:41, 11 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You want the article to be about a disease symptom? The convention on Wikipedia articles on medical symptoms is to describe the symptoms and list the causes. Discussion of the causes themselves (toxin or disease biology, history, epidemiology) is in separate articles, one for each cause. So either we have 2 articles, each one about a separate pathogen that happens to share a vernacular name; or we have 3 articles, one about the symptoms and two about the pathogens. --Una Smith (talk) 15:13, 11 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have reorganized the article into disease, and separate causes. I am assuming the symptoms and treatment are properly independent of the cause. --Una Smith (talk) 15:38, 12 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Faulty Information

Section 1.2 states that 'Phytophthora was responsible for mass die-off of horse chestnut trees in the 1940s worldwide, and is still the principal agent of bleeding canker on horse chestnuts in North America.' I am fairly certain that this statement refers to the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica and to the devastation of the American Chestnut, as I was unable to find any documentation to support this statement. It has already been noted that it lacks citation. 82.35.88.128 (talk) 17:43, 18 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

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