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PA Bulletin, Doc. No. 06-1970

NOTICES

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Order of Quarantine; Plum Pox Virus

[36 Pa.B. 6108]
[Saturday, October 7, 2006]

Recitals

   A.  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.

   B.  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.

   C.  Plum Pox Virus (PPV)--a plant pest indigenous to Europe--is a serious 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.

   D.  As a result of the presence of PPV in several townships and boroughs, the Department has issued a series of quarantine orders establishing and adjusting a quarantine area.

   E.  To date, the quarantine orders currently in effect have established a quarantine area for commercial stone fruit orchards covering the following:

   Adams County:  Huntington Township, Latimore Township, the Borough of York Springs, part of Butler Township, part of Menallen Township and part of Tyrone Township;

   Cumberland County:  Dickinson Township, the Borough of Mount Holly Springs and South Middleton Township; and

   York County:  Franklin Township and Monaghan Township.

   F.  PPV has since been detected on stone fruit trees located in an area of Franklin Township, Adams County. This represents the first confirmed record of PPV in this township.

   G.  PPV has the potential to cause serious damage to the stone fruit production industry within this Commonwealth.

   H.  PPV is transmitted from infected trees by aphids and by budding or grafting and can be spread into new areas by movement of infected nursery stock.

   I.  The movement of PPV-infected fruit trees poses a danger to stone fruit trees in noninfected areas.

   J.  There is no known control for PPV other than destruction of infected trees.

Order

   Under authority of section 21 of the Plant Pest Act (3 P. S. § 258.21), and with the foregoing recitals incorporated by reference, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture hereby orders the following:

   1.  A quarantine is hereby established with respect to the portion of Franklin Township, Adams County, bounded as follows:

   a.  Bounded on the Northeast by the Butler/Franklin Township Line, beginning at the intersection with Blue Ribbon Road and continuing to the Cumberland Township Line.

   b.  Bounded on the Southeast by the Franklin/Cumberland Township Line, and continuing to where it intersects with U. S. Highway 30.

   c.  Bounded on the Southwest by U. S. Highway 30 continuing to the intersection with Fairview Fruit Road.

   d.  Bounded on the Northwest by Fairview Fruit Road, continuing to the intersection with Mummasburg Road, and continuing through the intersection on Blue Ribbon Road a short distance until it intersects with the Butler/Franklin Township Line.

   2.  This quarantine prohibits the movement of stone fruit trees and stone fruit budwood within the quarantined area, and prohibits the movement of stone fruit trees and stone fruit budwood out of the quarantined area.

   3.  This quarantine order also prohibits the planting of stone fruit trees (apricot, nectarine, peach and plum) in the quarantined area. This prohibition applies to both fruit-bearing and ornamental varieties of stone fruit trees. Examples of common varieties of ornamental stone fruit trees include purpleleaf plum, flowering almond, flowering peach, purpleleaf sandcherry, flowering cherry, and weeping cherry.

   4.  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 Plant Pest Act (at 3 P. S. § 258.21(a)). These restrictions may address aphid control, elimination or reduction of aphid habitat, destruction of Plum Pox Virus-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 Plum Pox Virus in this Commonwealth.

   5.  This Order applies to commercial orchards, commercial nurseries, homeowners and all persons within the quarantine areas described previously.

   6.  This quarantine is effective as of September 21, 2006.

DENNIS C WOLFF,   
Secretary

[Pa.B. Doc. No. 06-1970. Filed for public inspection October 6, 2006, 9:00 a.m.]


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