York-based scientists are using the latest technology to fight the threat to the nation’s ash trees.

The Food and Environment Research Laboratory (FERA), based at Sand Hutton, near York, is working with portable DNA equipment known as Smartcycler to establish the extent of ash dieback around the country.

It is the first time that the equipment has been used in the field to identify ash dieback, allowing the Government to take action where and when any further outbreaks are identified.

Ash trees are a cornerstone of the Yorkshire Dales limestone uplands, and there are hundreds of thousands of them. As yet no symptoms have been found there, but a quarter of a million have been planted in the last ten years alone.

All are at risk from the fungal infection that causes dieback, and tourists in the Dales are being asked to clean their boots, bike tyres, cars and dogs after visiting the area.

The picture is just as bleak in East Yorkshire, where ash trees make up 40 per cent of the county's woodland.

Conventional methods of testing for ash dieback rely on samples being sent to a laboratory from the outbreak site and it can take a number of days to get the results back. Using the Smartcycler, scientists and inspectors can take samples of potentially infected trees and test them for the presence of the fungus, getting the results back in just over an hour. The Smartcycler operates through a computer and is about the size of a large car battery, weighing about 10kg.

The technology, originally developed in the US for detecting biological agents in the battlefield, was adapted by Fera for the detection of plant pathogens. Scientists from Fera are the first in the world to have adapted the technology for use in diagnosing plant diseases in the field. Fera initially used the machine to detect phytophthora ramorum (the organism responsible for sudden oak death).

Fera’s scientists are also testing out the very latest in portable plant health diagnostic equipment at ash dieback sites. This technology represents the next generation field diagnostics. Working with UK company Optigene, the scientists have developed a machine that is even smaller and faster than the Smartcycler.

This new machine, currently being tested at outbreak sites, will reduce the time taken to get results still further – to less than 30 minutes. The new machine, called the Genie II, only weighs about 2kg and uses the latest techniques in rapid DNA analysis.

Chalara fraxinea, the fungus that causes dieback, was first observed in Lithuania and eastern Poland in 1992. It went on to infect most of the Continent and has taken its toll on 90 per cent of Norway’s ash trees. The disease arrived in Britain in March.

Our first case was recorded at a nursery in Buckinghamshire and since then chalara fraxinea has been confirmed in more than 80 locations nationwide.

So far woodlands in Norfolk, Suffolk, Kent and Essex are the most blighted and to date 100,000 trees have been lost across the country.

So far in North Yorkshire only Richmond has been affected, but cases have been confirmed in County Durham.