Geir Y. Friisoe
Minnesota
Vice President
Wayne N. Dixon
Florida
Secretary-Treasurer
Ann Gibbs
Maine
Past President
Mitch Yergert
Colorado
Executive Secretary
Aurelio Posadas
P.O. Box 847
Elk Grove, CA 95759
916-709-3484
Directors
Central Plant Board
Julie c. van meter
Nebraska
Collin Wamsley
missouri
Eastern Plant Board
Carol Holko
Maryland
Dana Rhodes
Pennsylvania
Southern Plant Board
Mike Evans
Georgia
Larry Nichols
Virginia
Western Plant Board
Brad White
Washington
John Caravetta
Arizona
Date
Osama El Lissy
Deputy Administrator for Plant Protection and Quarantine
USDA APHIS PPQ
Jamie L. Whitten Federal Building
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20250
Dear Osama:
The National Plant Board recognizes the success APHIS PPQ has had in eradicating Plum Pox Virus (PPV) from the US, and keeping Pale Cyst Nematode (PCN) isolated to one state Idaho. This will not continue unless we harmonize our regulations and practices with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Canada.
Plum Pox Virus is a disease of Prunus species which has the potential to devastate
the stone fruit (peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines) industry of the United States. Through to cooperation between USDA and the states eradication has been completed in both Pennsylvania and Michigan and in progress in New York. The most serious threat from this disease now resides in Ontario, Canada directly across the Niagara River from New York. Canada’s policy to manage, rather than eradicate, the Plum Pox Virus creates a challenge for U.S. agriculture. Because Canada has not removed known infested trees, a reservoir of Plum Pox Virus inoculum now resides mere miles from a United States commercial stone fruit orchard. As the virus remains unchecked on the Canadian side, the disease level is increasing and aphid transmission has become a significant and ongoing threat of continual reintroductions of this disease.
Pale Cyst Nematode is a pest of potatoes which has a potential to devastate export markets for potatoes and leave fields fallow for years. Currently PCN is found in a portion of Idaho and several provinces in Canada. The US developed a management plan that all potato growing states have endorsed, but took many years of effort to implement. Canada has signed an agreement with the US to harmonize these efforts. CFIA has been trying to change this agreement and utilize third party auditors with very little oversight from government regulatory personnel. This is not the protocol that took so many years to implement and it is important that we keep the current agreement in place.
For these reasons we urge PPQ to continue to work with CFIA to eradicate PPV from Canada, maintain the current harmonized agreement for seed potatoes.
Sincerely,
Geir Friisoe, President
National Plant Board
CC
Greg Wolf, CFIA
Rebecca Bech, Associate Deputy Administrator, USDA-APHIS-PPQ
Mike Watson, Associate Deputy Administrator, USDA-APHIS-PPQ
Paula Henstridge, Assistant Deputy Administrator, USDA-APHIS-PPQ
Julie Van Meter, President, Central Plant Board
Dana Rhodes, President, Eastern Plant Board
Mike Evans, President, Southern Plant Board
Brad White, President, Western Plant Board
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