Citric sadness is one of the most devastating illness this crop can suffer, provoking the distruction of hundreds of thousands of trees in different countries. The work presented by several research institutions, headed by the Institute for Citrics and Fruits Research, has a valuable contribution to knowledge, epidemiology and control of this virus in our country, allowing, at the same time, to devise and apply a managing strategy along th whole country, which has minimizad losses caused by this desease, despite the broad use of sour orange tree as a pattern and the introduction of the virus most effective vector in Cuba.

The Comisión for Agrarian and Fishery Science proposes this work as National Award of the Academy of Science of Cuba taking into account its scientific and practical contribution, the presented document quality, the adequate and broad acreditation on its insertion in production,as well as the arduous work developed in disseminating its results, gathered in different publications in journals and proceedings of high impact on the issue and the presentation in the most important scientific meetings. The backing made by prestigious research centers and national and foreign personalities, constitute also a guarantee of the national and international acknowledgement of the obtained reseults

Among the main contribution of this research are:

• -Characterization of Cuban isolations of citric sadness virus using the most modern and solid criteria accepted today. It is for the first time presented results of phylogenetic relations of our isolations, compared to the most representative ones from the different world citric cultivated regions;
• -Characterization of the desease vectors in the country, detection of natural enemies and biological controls, some of which constitute first reports. In this sense, it is highlighted the study on population levels and the establishment of a prognosis and signs methodology, as well as a threshold methodology, which are critical aspects in devising the management strategy;
• -Establishment and implementation of a statistically representative system for the inquiry of the virus at national level, based on the optimization of national production method and application of new advanced diagnostics variants;
• Design of a management strategy for this virus and its vectors on the basis of the previously obtained scientific results.