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PA Bulletin, Doc. No. 04-1886

NOTICES

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Partial Revocation of Plum Pox Virus Quarantine

[34 Pa.B. 5687]

Recitals

   1.  The Plant Pest Act (act) (3 P. S. §§ 258.1--258.27) empowers the Department of Agriculture (Department) to take various measures to detect, contain and eradicate plant pests in this Commonwealth.

   2.  The powers granted the Department under section 21 of the act (3 P. S. § 258.21) include the power to establish quarantines to prevent the dissemination of plant pests within this Commonwealth.

   3.  Plum Pox Virus (PPV) is a serious non-native plant pest that injures and damages stone fruits such as peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots by drastically reducing the fruit yields from these stone fruit trees and by disfiguring the fruit to the point it is unmarketable and has been detected in certain areas of this Commonwealth.

   4.  The Department has exercised its authority under the act and issued several Orders of Quarantine affecting portions of Adams, Cumberland, Franklin and York Counties in an effort to contain, identify and eradicate PPV.

   5.  The Department is satisfied it is appropriate to rescind the Order of Quarantine applicable to Quincy Township and Mont Alto Borough, Franklin County and the Order of Quarantine applicable to Southampton Township, Cumberland County, since 3 consecutive years of extensive testing have failed to detect the presence of PPV among stone fruit trees in those areas.

Order

   Under authority of section 21 of the act, the Department hereby enters the following order:

   The Order of Quarantine dated August 27, 2001, and published at 31 Pa.B. 5117 (September 8, 2001) and the Order of Quarantine dated June 26, 2001, and published at 31 Pa.B. 3559 (July 7, 2001) are hereby rescinded. Those orders had imposed a quarantine on all properties in Quincy Township and Mont Alto Borough, Franklin County and on all properties in Southampton Township, Cumberland County, respectively, to facilitate the containment and eradication of PPV and to make the affected stone fruit tree owners eligible for reimbursement of certain costs related to the destruction of stone fruit trees, herbicide applications, insect control measures and other PPV eradication activities under the Department's Commercial Orchard and Fruit Tree Indemnity Program and the Department's Plum Pox Noncommercial Prunus Tree and Landscape Nursery Prunus Tree Indemnity Program. All PPV-infected stone fruit trees and all stone fruit trees within 500 meters of the infected trees have since been removed from the quarantined locations, and the owners of those trees compensated for the losses attendant to this removal. Three consecutive years of intensive sampling and testing stone fruit leaves in the three municipalities have not yielded any additional positive detections of PPV. Therefore, the locations covered by the referenced August 27, 2001, and June 26, 2001, Orders of Quarantine are no longer considered a potential reservoir of the PPV virus and as a result can be considered free of PPV. The locations hereby released from quarantine are as follows:

   All properties and land located in Quincy Township, Franklin County.

   All properties and land located in Mont Alto Borough, Franklin County.

   All properties and land located in Southampton Township, Cumberland County.

   The Department will consult with the United States Department of Agriculture, European experts and scientific authorities with respect to the most efficacious measures by which to contain and eliminate this serious plant pest. The Department will issue further restrictions under authority of this Quarantine Order, as is required under the section 21(a) of the act. These restrictions may address aphid control, elimination or reduction of aphid habitat, destruction of PPV-infected stone fruit trees and budwood, destruction of endangered or exposed stone fruit trees or budwood and any other measures necessary to the containment and elimination of the PPV in this Commonwealth.

   This quarantine is effective as of September 30, 2004, and shall remain in effect until terminated by subsequent order.

DENNIS C WOLFF,   
Secretary

[Pa.B. Doc. No. 04-1886. Filed for public inspection October 15, 2004, 9:00 a.m.]


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