By Stephanie Staton
How to Help
To take part in the New York survey or to schedule an inspection , homeowner in the Orleans and Niagara areas should get in touch with the USDA flying field office in Lockport at 433 - 6482 , university extension 200 or by e - mail atNY.Plumpox . Survey@aphis.usda.govFor more data or to account tree or yield symptomatic of plum pox , contact lens :
USDA - APHIS - PPQPlum Pox Program CoordinatorInvasive Species and Pest Management4700 River Road , Unit 134Riverdale , MD 20737 - 1236301 - 734 - 8899
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture2301 North Cameron StreetHarrisburg , PA 17110 - 9408717 - 787 - 4737
Read More About Orchards
To learn more about diseases that move Edward Durell Stone fruits , Nut , and other fruits and Charles Edward Berry , check out out thePopular Farming Series : Orcharding .
If you have yield tree diagram on your property and exist in northerly New York land , the U.S. Department of Agriculture ’s ( USDA ) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service ( APHIS ) need your assistant to test trees for the plum tree pox virus ( PPV ) in two New York counties : Niagara and Orleans .
The Path of PPVThe computer virus was first detected in New York in July 2006 . Almost one month by and by , the USDA ’s Plant Germplasm and Biotechnology Laboratory also confirmed its presence in southwestern Michigan . According to USDA ’s APHIS , the first detection in the United States was in Pennsylvania in October 1999 . One year after , it turned up in Ontario and Nova Scotia , Canada . This last irruption led researchers to study areas close to the locations of the computer virus . The 2006 sensing result from this seven - year view for the computer virus , which was handled by state and Union agriculture officials . There were 22 leaf sample collected from a 108 - tree plantation in Niagara County , N.Y. , which is less than five miles from the PPV - prescribed site in Canada .
What Is PPV?PPV is a virus disease of stone fruits ( i.e. , peaches , plum , nectarines , apricots , almond and some ornamental Prunus cultivar ) that can be carry in live store , grafts and budwood of infected plants .
The virus is transmitted by aphids that feed on an infected plant before motivate on to a respectable one — the virus is carry in their mouths , surviving for about one time of day and reaching as far as 120 m from its bloodline . The mintage of aphid , the melodic line of computer virus and the affected host coinage all bear upon the pace and incursion of the disease .
So far , the disease has only been found in commercial-grade stone - fruit orchards , but researchers at Penn State University are surveying wild Prunus works and weeds for signs of PPV . The computer virus strain find in the United States and Canada is the D strain from Europe , which is n’t the most infectious PPV strain and does n’t appear to infect cherry species .
How Does PPV pretend TreesThe computer virus often can be detected at the base of a branch , but not at the bakshish . Not every tree , leaf or yield show symptoms , even though the entire Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree is infected .
While it bewilder no human wellness risks , PPV does trim total quantities , blue fruit tone and debilitate the tree . The D strain is not seminal fluid borne , so it is n’t necessary to govern yield movement to forbid the spread of the disease ; the only room to exterminate the disease is to take away and destruct all infected trees . To positively identify the comportment of PPV , researchers must apply serological lab tests .
