DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Order of Quarantine: Partial Revocation of Plum Pox Virus Quarantine Recitals
[36 Pa.B. 7298]
[Saturday, December 2, 2006]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. PPV has the potential to cause serious damage to the stone fruit production industry within this Commonwealth.
F. 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.
G. The movement of PPV-infected fruit trees poses a danger to stone fruit trees in noninfected areas.
H. There is no known control for PPV other than destruction of infected trees.
I. The Department conducts extensive testing of stone fruit trees in all of the quarantined areas to search for the presence of PPV. Where this testing has gone on for at least 3 years in a particular quarantined area without detecting the presence of PPV among stone fruit trees in that area, the Department is satisfied it is appropriate to rescind the PPV-related quarantine of that area.
J. The Department is also satisfied that it is appropriate to reduce the size of some of the areas that are currently subject to PPV-related quarantines.
Order
Under authority of section 21 of the act the Department hereby orders the following:
1. The following Orders of Quarantine are hereby rescinded:
Date of Order Publication Quarantined Area October 21, 1999 29 Pa.B. 5735 Huntington Township (Adams County)
Latimore Township (Adams County)
July 27, 2000 30 Pa.B. 4357 Dickinson Township (Cumberland County)
Part of Tyrone Township (Adams County)
October 31, 2000 30 Pa.B. 5852 Borough of York Springs (Adams County)
Borough of Mount Holly Springs (Cumberland County)
October 31, 2000 30 Pa.B. 5852 Borough of York Springs (Adams County) only.
(The portion of this Quarantine Order establishing a quarantine within the Borough of Mount Holly Springs, in Cumberland County, remains in effect).June 22, 2001 31 Pa.B. 3560 Franklin Township (York County)
2. A quarantine is hereby established with respect to that portion of Tyrone Township, Adams County, located to the north of Cranberry Road.
3. The movement of stone fruit trees and stone fruit budwood within the quarantined area is prohibited.
4. The movement of stone fruit trees and stone fruit budwood out of the quarantined area is prohibited.
5. The planting of stone fruit trees (apricot, nectarine, peach and plum) in the quarantined area is prohibited. 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.
6. 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 section 21(a) of the act. 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.
7. This Order applies to commercial orchards, commercial nurseries, homeowners and all persons within the quarantine area.
8. This quarantine is effective as of November 14, 2006.
DENNIS C WOLFF,
Secretary[Pa.B. Doc. No. 06-2351. Filed for public inspection December 1, 2006, 9:00 a.m.]
