STUDY SHOWS INFECTED FRUIT DOES NOT SPREAD CITRUS CANKER

Timothy Gottwald, a plant pathologist at the USDA Horticulture Research Laboratory in Fort Pierce, and two other researchers announced Sept. 6 that a study they conducted earlier this year indicates that citrus canker cannot be spread by introducing infected fruit into a grove. Gottwald drew chuckles from those attending the 46th annual Citrus Packinghouse Day when he showed a video of himself and others batting infected grapefruit into trees as part of the research. USDA had banned shipments of fresh citrus from Florida packinghouses to 10 other citrus-producing states and U.S. territories since Aug. 2006, following the announcement that the disease could not be eradicated after the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes. The agency also based its decision on earlier research showing the possibility of canker being spread from infected fruit in a packinghouse setting. That study was later updated following implementation of new sanitation procedures and indicated a much lower likelihood of contamination. This latest study measured whether the bacteria would spread to other trees. It found no spread even over a distance as short as 1 meter.

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