(1) A single viroid was found to cause more than a dozen different plant diseases.(2) In 1971, ARS researchers determined that a viroid was the cause of potato spindle tuber disease, which previously had been identified as a virus.(3) Prions do not contain DNA or RNA as do fungi, bacteria, viruses, viroids , or any other previously known infectious entities.(4) They include animals, insects, and nematodes (while vine diseases include the microbes bacteria, fungi, phytoplasma, viroids , and virus).(5) Fast, accurate tests, based on antibody testing technology, were developed for trichinosis in pigs; for anaplasmosis, a costly parasitic disease in cattle; and for plant viruses and viroids .
