Southeast AgNet broke this story first a couple days ago here on this website. Today it became official with this news release directly from USDA/APHIS:
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22, 2009–The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today announced that it is amending its citrus canker regulations to allow fruit from quarantined areas to be shipped to all U.S. states, based on the results of new scientific research. Florida is the only state in the United States that is quarantined for citrus canker.
APHIS’ analysis of the new research on citrus canker concludes that the disease is highly unlikely to be spread by harvested fruit without citrus canker symptoms. Even harvested fruit with visible citrus canker symptoms was shown in the research not to spread the disease as long as the fruit is disinfected at the packinghouse using approved methods.
As a result of this research, APHIS is amending its citrus canker regulations. Each lot of harvested fruit will no longer need to be inspected at the packinghouse and found free of visible symptoms of canker. Fruit can also be shipped to commercial citrus-producing states. However, APHIS will continue to require fruit moved interstate from a quarantined area be treated with an approved disinfectant and packed in a commercial packinghouse that operates under a compliance agreement.
Notice of this final rule will be published in today’s Oct. 22 Federal Register and will become effective upon publication.
Citrus canker is a plant disease caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (referred to below as Xcc) that affects plants and plant parts, including fresh fruit, of citrus and citrus relatives (Family Rutaceae). Citrus canker can cause defoliation and other damage to the leaves and twigs of susceptible plants. It can also cause lesions on the fruit of infected plants, which may render the fruit unmarketable in extreme cases, and cause infected fruit to drop from the trees before reaching maturity. There is no known cure for citrus canker.
For additional information, log onto: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/plant_imports/plant_inspection_stations.shtml or http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/index.shtml.
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