A severe and incurable disease, known as Flavesvence Dorée is threatening Europena and French vineyards.

The best way to fight against the disease is to either detect the contaminated Vine plants, remove them as soon as possible, and thus prevent the disease from spreading, or eradicate it by using insecticides to kill the insect vector"

Jacques Grosman, French Government expert on viticulture

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Flavescence Dorée is caused by a tiny bacterium or phytoplasma that consumes all the vine's nutrients. This prevent the vine from producing grappes and finally kills the entire plants. This phytoplasma is spread to other vines by leafhoppers.

Flavescence dorée is a disease that has already infected 60% of French vineyards and part of southern Europe (Italy, Portugal, Serbia, Switzerland...) and is still spreading across others European regions too.

The disease has been declared a "quarantine disease" since 1993.

In France, according to the law, all measures must be taken to fight against the leafhopper and to remove all contaminated vine plants. Furthermore, if the disease affects 20% of a field, the wine producer is obliged by law to uproot the entire plot.

These measures are important and are the only way to fight against Flavescence Dorée since there is currently no cure for this disease.

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Once the vine has been infected, symptoms can being to appear appear within the same year. Unfortunately, they often appear a year later. Even then, symptoms are not the same from one year to another, which makes it complicated to detect. Without laboratory analysis, it is therefore difficult to act rapidly against the disease.

Anova-Plus has developed an innovative DNA test to detect Flavescence Dorée directly in the vineyard.

Anova-Plus has developed a simple and easy-to-use DNA test to detect Flavescence Dorée directly in the vines. Wine producers can perform the test themselves and no scientific background is required.

This test is a premiere in vine disease diagnosis since it provides speedy analysis of the vine at an affordble cost. This is possible thanks to a new technology involving an isothermal amplification of the pathogen DNA and the use of a special cartridge containing a strip that reveals the presence or absence of the specific DNA.

*How do you perform the DNA test? *

How can this kit help wine producers in the fight against Flavescence Dorée?

_" Vine There has been a great deal of innovation in the winegrowing sector to find new ways of eradicating Flavescence Dorée. To be more effective, everybody needs to take part in the fight. This DNA test and additional laboratory tests enable all winegrowers to take independant and rapid action against the disease." _

Carine La, C_o-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Anova-Plus _

What does the kit contain*? *

Wine producers will receive a kit that will allow them to perform a DNA test to detect the Flavescence Dorée disease.

This kit includes:

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1 extraction bag containing an extraction buffer developed by Anova-Plus. The wine producer uses this bag to gring the leaf petioles.

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2 tubes:

1 tube contains a lyophilized biological mix to perform the DNA test.

1 tube contains a rehydration buffer to rehydrate the first tube.

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1 pipette to transfer the liquid from one tube the other.

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1 loop to collect 1 µl of the juice from the extraction buffer and add it to the rehydrated biological mix.

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1 cartridge containing a strip that will enable wine producers to detect contaminated plants.

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To perform the test, the wine producer needs to heat the tube containing the biological mix and the sample. To do this, a portable heating block is required. This item is not included in the kit but may be ordred from Anova-Plus who proposes several brands and models on its catalog.

Our "Wine Lover" project supports and partners with:

Anova-Plus is an innovative start-up created in 2012 by Marc Masson, Carine La, Mark Walton and Guy Blache. The company headquarters are in the Genopole, France’s leading biocluster for biotechnologies and research into genomics and genetics, and its aim is to transform laboratory techniques into tools that are simpler to use, providing agriculture professionals with direct on-field tests at an affordable price.

The founders:

Marc Masson, PhD

*Chairman *

_ Click on the picture to learn more about Marc Masson._

*Carine La, Engineer in Biotechnologies *

*Executive Chief Operating Officer *

Click on the picture to learn more about Carine La.

Mark Walton, PhD

Vice-Chairman

Click on the picture to learn more about Mark Walton.

Guy Blache, Engineer in Agronomy

*R&D Projects Manager *

_Click on the picture to learn more about Guy Blache. _

Thanks to our multidisciplinary team of geneticists, agronomists and engineers, and collaboration with research institutes, we do our best to develop the most suitable tools for the agriculture industry.

Our first challenge has been to develop a rapid DNA test for on-field detection of a serious and incurable vine disease: Flavescence Dorée. This innovative test developed by Anova-Plus will allow wine producers to detect the disease within less than 1 hour. Thanks to this kit, winegrowers can act rapidly against the disease by removing contaminated vine plants thereby limiting the propagation of the disease.

*We now need your support to make this porject possible and to help us continue innovating for the benefit of the winegrowing industry. We need your help to set up a production unit, to perform large-scale testing of these kits and to supply some kits for free to wine producers most in need. *

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We have created Anova-Plus to develop a sustainable way to fight against Flavescence Dorée and to provide wine producers with a test taht they can perform themselves.

Our main challenge has been to transfer technologies up-to-date sophiticated technology taht are usually reserved to laboratory to develop a solution that can be used directly in the vineyards.

The prototypes have been developed and tested with experts.

*We need your help to setup a production unit, to perform a large scale beta-testing and to supply some kits for free to the wine producers in most need. This beta-testing will allow the optimization of the sensitivty and easiness of those kits. *

For our pionner wine producers, we are offering kits at a special "Wine Lover" price.

*The rewards *

All rewards are delivered in March 2015 at he end of the campaign.

_The kits will be delivered to you, or the wine producers of your choice, or to the associations that we have identified and selected, by May 2015. _

For the reward N°6, delivery of the wine is in France only.

_If you would like us to mention your name in the packs delivered, simply inform us beforehand. _

Thanks to all WINE LOVERS!