Efforts Vs. Fruit Disease Stepped Up
By KARIN MEADOWS, AP
06:57 PM ET 02/04/00
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - About 50 inspectors will be hired
to check thousands of acres of citrus north of Miami for citrus
canker, the disease already ravaging thousands of fruit trees to
the south.
There's been no trace of the bacteria in the Indian River
agricultural district, but grapefruit is king here and growers are
nervous, said Mike Shannon, U.S. Department of Agriculture plant
inspector.
``There's great concern and there should be,'' Shannon said
Friday. ``But this isn't about controlling citrus canker. It's
about providing a program to detect it - should it show up - so we
can get it out of there in a timely manner.''
The additional inspections of commercial and residential groves
should begin within the next couple of weeks, said Richard
Gaskalla, director of the plant industry division of the Florida
Department of Agriculture.
Gaskalla called the hiring of more inspectors a precautionary
measure following the destruction of thousands of lime trees in
south Miami-Dade County commercial groves after canker was detected
there Jan. 5. Growers there already have lost more than half of the
fruits of their $20 million a year industry.
The contagious plant disease causes unsightly lesions that make
the fruit drop prematurely, but is not harmful to humans. Canker
can be spread numerous ways - by human hands, machinery, wind and
rain.
Florida ranks No. 1 in grapefruit production, selling an
estimated $173 million worth a year, according to the Florida Agricultural Statistics Service. Most Florida grapefruit comes from
St. Lucie, Indian River and Martin counties and the inland counties
to the west.
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