NYT article about citrus canker.
January 19, 2000
Stealthy Disease Threatens South Florida Fruit Groves
By PETER T. KILBORN
MIAMI, Jan. 18 -- Over the last two weeks, a treacherous and
incurable plant disease called citrus canker that began showing up in
backyards five years ago has been migrating into commercial groves
in South Florida, threatening the state's $8.5 billion citrus fruit industry.
The disease, which is caused by bacteria, has struck at least 20 commercial
lime groves in Miami-Dade County, the hardest hit area. To try to check its
advance, the state has quarantined nearly 700 square miles of land in and
around the groves and has bulldozed and burned nearly 200,000 exposed and
infected trees. Nothing else can stop it.
"The problem is very, very serious," said Michael Hornyak, an official of the
United States Department of Agriculture and a director of a Citrus Canker
Eradication Program, a state and federal effort that has dispatched 125
inspectors into groves throughout South Florida.
"We do not believe we see the full extent of the spread," Mr. Hornyak said.
"California, Texas, all these states are at risk."
Officials say citrus canker's potential damage dwarfs other periodic scourges
of the state's citrus crops, like winter freezes.
"Most trees recover from a freeze," said Andrew W. LaVigne, executive vice
president of the Florida Citrus Mutual, the industry's trade association in
Lakeland. "Usually the loss is just the fruit of the tree. With canker, you lose
the tree."
Canker was first detected in the Gulf States in 1910.
It was declared eradicated in 1933, after 258,000 trees had been destroyed in
Florida.
It reappeared periodically, and between 1986 and 1992 it was detected at 13
sites in four Florida counties, leading to the destruction of almost 34,000
trees in commercial groves, according to the United States Department of
Agriculture.
The citrus canker, a round, yellowish blister that forms on leaves, limbs and
fruit, cripples the tree, causing some leaves and fruit to fall prematurely. It
poses no threat to human or animal health, and does not affect the flavor of
the fruit.
The current infestation is concentrated south of Miami, around Homestead
and Florida City. Today, state agriculture officials said they had inspected
581 of the area's 3,000 acres of commercial lime groves and found that 551
had been infected or exposed. All their trees will be destroyed.
The canker has spread beyond Miami-Dade County; outbreaks have appeared
in five other South Florida counties: Broward, Collier, Hendry, Hillsborough
and Manatee.
In Homestead on Monday, Craig Wheeling approached a grove of his lime
trees, all bearing the starlike white blossoms that in a month should turn to
fruit. He stopped within five feet so he would not carry bacteria to other
trees.
"So far we've had approximately 200 acres that have had positive indications
of canker," said Mr. Wheeling, chief executive of Brooks Tropicals, the
nation's leading producer of limes. "They're likely to be burned."
About 1,800 acres looked unaffected so far, Mr. Wheeling said.
Under quarantine, no tree's fruit may be moved from the areas. The Florida
Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has begun removing all
citrus trees within 1,900 feet of an infected tree.
The outbreak was traced to a home near Miami International Airport in 1995.
Then the disease began appearing at other residential sites.
Soon after, the state began the eradication program. Raising the alarm three
years ago, the Florida agriculture commissioner, Bob Crawford, issued a
statement appealing for the public's help in "waging a battle against one of the
most devastating, highly contagious diseases known to citrus trees."
Since then, however, the disease has spread through more residential areas.
Then, strewn by last year's hurricanes and wind-driven fires, it was
discovered on Jan. 5 at an abandoned commercial grove in Florida City, 35
miles south of Miami.
The disease migrates with more stealth than a medfly, officials said. Wind
and water carry it. "Birds carry it on their feet," Mr. LaVigne said.
Growers like Mr. Wheeling fight it by spraying their field workers' boots with
chlorine.
In canker outbreaks since 1910, the disease has been mostly confined to
residential sites and has been eradicated before reaching many groves.
As citrus farming has grown into an $8.5 billion industry, Florida's second
biggest after tourism, the potential damage of widespread infection is
pronounced. Few orange and grapefruit groves have been infected, as yet,
although grapefruits are highly susceptible to the disease.
Just north of Homestead in the community of Princeton, Herbert Yamamura,
owner of Limeco Inc., said 265 acres of his 400 acres in lime groves had
been found infected. He expects them to be bulldozed and burned.
"They haven't checked the other acres," Mr. Yamamura said.
Each tree was worth $26 and each acre had 242 trees, he said. So his groves
represent an investment of $2.5 million.
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company |
