Pa. Pronounced Plum Pox-Free
Submitted by Editor on Fri, 10/30/2009 - 11:15am.
BIGLERVILLE, Pa. — Pennsylvania acting Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding announced Thursday that after 10 years the plum pox virus has been eradicated in the state.
The plum pox virus is a disease that severely affects stone fruit production.
Found in Adams County peach trees in 1999 — the first-ever detection of the virus in North America — the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, USDA, and Penn State collaborated to impose a 300-square mile quarantine area, perform aggressive surveillance and develop an eradication program.
No virus has been found in the past three years, which meets the requirements to declare Pennsylvania free of the virus. Now orchard growers and residential homeowners within the quarantined area can begin replanting.
“A major milestone has been reached for Pennsylvania agriculture and this historic moment is a testament to teamwork, perseverance and science,” said Redding. “This critical mission could not have been accomplished without the cooperation of all the growers, the state and federal agriculture departments and Penn State University, all of whom worked together for the past decade to eradicate Plum Pox. Because of their efforts, we will continue to enjoy peaches and other stone fruits from Adams, Cumberland, Franklin and York counties.”
“One of the primary goals of the plum pox eradication program was to prevent the widespread distribution of this disease to other stone fruit-producing states,” said Ann Wright, deputy undersecretary for USDA’s marketing and regulatory programs. “Because of an extraordinary partnership between the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Penn State University, industry and USDA, today we can declare plum pox eradicated from Pennsylvania.”
Native to Europe and spread by aphids, plum pox virus affects plants in the genus Prunus, or stone fruits, including fruit-bearing and ornamental varieties of almond, apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach and plum.
Since trees cannot be cured of plum pox, affected growers were required to destroy all exposed stone fruit trees within the quarantined areas in the four affected counties. In Pennsylvania, 1,675 orchard acres were destroyed.
