Final Plum Pox Quarantine Lifted

plum pox, apricot, stone fruit

Plum pox on an apricot. (Photo credit: ARS)

New York inspectors have found no traces of plum pox virus in stone fruit trees in New York for the past three years.

Because of these results, the virus has been considered eradicated and Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the ban on planting stone fruit in Niagara County has been lifted, the last in the U.S. with an active quarantine for plum pox.

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“With the successful removal of this invasive species, a vital part of New York’s agricultural industry can once again use the almost 15,000 affected acres,” Governor Cuomo said.

Inspectors with the New York State Department of Agriculture collected and tested samples from 120,000 trees in Niagara, Orleans, and Wayne counties for the virus with the assistance of a $568,000 USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service grant. These samples came back negative.

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“This deregulation will allow us to plant 15 new acres of peach orchards this year and another 20 in 2016,” Jim Bittner of Bittner-Singer Orchards in Appleton, NY, said.

Click here to read more about the quarantine being lifted.

Source: Governor Andrew M. Cuomo news release

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