The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Sovereignty of the Government of the Canary Islands has initiated the first surveys for the detection of grapevine phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae Fitch) in Lanzarote. To this end, 71 locations have been evaluated to date where this organism is not present. So far, these field studies are being carried out in Tenerife, Gran Canaria, and Lanzarote, although next week technical staff from the regional Executive will begin the first surveys in La Palma, which will be extended to the rest of the islands.
To date, a total of 6,582 surveys have been carried out in Tenerife, Gran Canaria, and Lanzarote, with a balance of 6,496 negative points for the presence of this insect, as well as 86 positive ones, located exclusively in Tenerife. In these field analysis efforts, the Plant Health Service of the Directorate General of Agriculture collaborates with the public companies GMR Canarias and Gesplan, as well as, within their respective islands, with the Island Councils of Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
Regarding control and eradication actions, the head of the department, Narvay Quintero, highlighted that "these surveys will be carried out throughout the Archipelago even if there are no indications of the presence of phylloxera in them, because **active surveillance** is the only effective strategy to prevent the spread of this aphid".
"We must continue to take extreme precautions"
Likewise, Quintero stressed that “we must continue to take extreme precautions and for this we need the collaboration of all agents in the sector, administrations, and Canary Islands society in general, as only then will we achieve the complete eradication of this harmful organism that threatens an essential productive activity for our primary sector”.
In this regard, since the detection of the first case at the end of July, the regional Executive has held dozens of information sessions on all islands to report on detection and prevention actions and the control measures established in the Order of August 20, 2025In these meetings, furthermore, the different documents published by the Ministry in the fight against this insect were explained, such as the instructions for the transport of plant material and grapes during the harvest, the regulations for the management of organic waste from winemaking, or the official procedure for carrying out vineyard inspections, in addition to other resources such as the real-time monitoring map of control actions for this organism or the private initiative “filoxera.es”.On the other hand, at the initiative of the department headed by Narvay Quintero, the Scientific-Technical Committee on grapevine phylloxera was established at the end of September. This committee is responsible for advising administrations and the sector on the control and eradication of this organism, as well as analyzing its origin and monitoring the insect's evolution.Composed of specialists and researchers from various public administrations, national and international research centers, and other bodies, proposed by public institutions and representative entities of the agricultural sector, this body acts as a link with the scientific community and works to promote necessary measures to preserve the Canarian wine heritage
