Country: United States

Title: Update on regulation of plants recently reported with Phytophthora ramorum (ramorum blight & dieback, sudden oak death)

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Report: On February 14, 2002, the USDA published an interim rule in the Federal Register for Phytophthora ramorum (7 CFR 301.92). This rule regulates the interstate movement of restricted and regulated articles to prevent the artificial spread of this disease-causing organism from areas where the disease is established. The USDA also issued an Emergency Federal Order dated December 21, 2004, to regulate certain nurseries and plants to prevent the spread of the pathogen through nursery plants.
 

The purpose of this Official Report is to provide notification that the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service will be regulating certain new species, effective March 31, 2006. This action is necessary as the USDA has learned that certain additional plant taxa can be infected by P. ramorum and need to be regulated in order to control the artificial spread of this disease.
 

Additional plant taxa (as listed in the “Federal Domestic Quarantine Order”) are:
•Acer circinatum; found as leaf lesions on naturally infected woodland specimens by Dr. David Rizzo
•Arctostaphylos columbiana; found as leaf lesions and tip die-back on naturally infected woodland specimens by Dr. David Rizzo
•Rosa “Meidiland”; reported as leaf blight infections in several Canadian nurseries

Koch’s Postulates have not yet been completed for these plants, so they can not yet be listed as proven hosts of P. ramorum. As an interim measure, the above plants are added to those already regulated as per the Emergency Federal Order dated December 21, 2004, which regulates the movement of nursery stock from the States of Washington, Oregon and California. Those nurseries operating under a compliance agreement may continue to ship hosts and associated plants including the newly listed plants. Any other nurseries containing these newly listed associated plants must be properly inspected, sampled, tested and placed under a Compliance Agreement by March 31, 2006, to be able to move the above listed plants interstate.
 

Posted Date: March 15, 2006, 9 a.m.