Viruses cause viroses, which are a problem in agricultural production. They cause enormous economic damage by reducing the quantity and quality of harvests. We cannot protect plants from viruses with plant protection products, but we can protect them with the mild strain cross-protection (MSCP) method. This involves deliberately infecting plants with a less virulent strain of the virus in order to protect them from damage caused by a highly virulent strain. The method has proven successful, but the reasons for this are not yet fully understood. The success of MSCP is most often explained by the RNA-mediated resistance mechanism. Like all other methods, it has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages include the fact that it is an environmentally and socially acceptable method which, once established, is relatively simple and inexpensive and offers long-lasting protection against viruses. A weakness becomes apparent in cases where the virus protection established with the MSCP method no longer works after some time. The failure of cross-protection is due to only partial and non-systemic infection of the plant with a mild virus strain, the emergence of new highly virulent virus strains or the emergence of new virus vectors. The method is already quite widespread and several cases are known in which plants have been successfully protected against numerous viruses.
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