Environment minister Owen Paterson is to chair the meeting that will formulate a plan of action to tackle the threat, which has the potential to decimate the UK’s ash trees as it has done in Denmark.
The calling of a Cobra meeting follows the government’s announcement of a ban on the imports and movements of ash tree plants, trees and seeds on Monday.
Up to 100,000 ash trees and plants have already been felled to counter the disease, which was recently found in natural woodland in East Anglia for the first time.
Prior to that its spread had been limited to nurseries and recent plantings.
The sawn ash timber trade is unaffected by the ban as it represents a very low risk of disease transmission.
