Agriculture Department Says Pennsylvania Is Free of Plum Pox Virus in Fruit Trees; All Quarantines Lifted

Agriculture Department Says Pennsylvania Is Free of Plum Pox Virus in Fruit
Trees; All Quarantines Lifted

BIGLERVILLE, Pa., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania acting
Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding announced today 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, the
United States Department of Agriculture, and Penn State University
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.

Since the eradication program began, more than 500 summer interns have
collected more than two million samples from wild areas, residential property
trees and shrubs, commercial orchards across the state, and from nursery stock
moved to adjoining states.

"The Plum Pox eradication effort is a perfect illustration of how the state's
land-grant university can mobilize research and generate practical knowledge
for the public good," said Bruce McPheron, dean of Penn State's College of
Agricultural Sciences. "To rid the state of Plum Pox Virus while assisting
growers in maintaining their operations required the expertise of Penn State
plant pathologists, horticulturists, agricultural economists and extension
educators, working in partnership with the state and federal agriculture
departments and the fruit industry. This successful collaboration can serve as
a blueprint for future plant- and animal-disease outbreaks."

For more information about Plum Pox Virus, visit www.agriculture.state.pa.us
and click on "Plant and Animal Health."

Media contact: Jean Kummer, 717-787-5085

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture

Jean Kummer of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, +1-717-787-5085