| Summary: | <i>Tomato brown rugose fruit virus</i> (ToBRFV) is an emerging pathogen that causes severe disease in tomato (<i>Solanum lycopersicum</i> L.) crops. The first ToBRFV outbreak in Italy occurred in 2018 in several Sicilian provinces, representing a serious threat for tomato production. In the present work, the spatiotemporal displacement of ToBRFV in Sicily was evaluated, analyzing a total of 590 lots of tomato seed, 982 lots of plantlets from nurseries and 100 commercial greenhouses. Furthermore, we investigated the ToBRFV spreading dynamic in a greenhouse under experimental conditions. Results showed several aspects related to ToBRFV dispersion in protected tomato crops. In detail, an important decrease of the ToBRFV-infected seed and plantlet lots was detected. Regarding the examined commercial greenhouses, ToBRFV still appears to be present in Sicily, although there has been a decrease during monitoring. In experimental conditions, it was demonstrated that the presence of few infected plants are sufficient to damage the entire crop in a short time, reaching almost 100% of infection.
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