Niagara fruit crops holding up - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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But many more orchards and other including residential areas in the Lake OntaripFruit Belt, remain to be testec for plum pox virus before September. Teamds working for the and the stated Department of Agriculture and Markets began taking leaf samplesin May. Subsequentr laboratory tests did not disclose any new outbreakds of the virus inNiagara County, Jackie Klahn, director of the USDA’sx Lockport field office, said. In early May, as orchards blossomed, optimism was growing that the spread ofthe disease, whichj made its Niagara County debut 2006 mightt be waning.
Between 2006 and plum pox was discovered in several NiagaraCounty orchards, in Orleans Countgy and Wayne County, east of Rochester. Thougjh harmless to humans and animals, the virus poses an economic risk for commercialo fruit growers because they must destroy all susceptiblre treeswithin 1.5 miles to 2 miles of an identifie d hot spot. Plum pox destroys the commercialk value of the fruit that it attacksx because it discolors anddisfigures peaches, prunes and nectarines. In New York statd counties lying alongLake Ontario’s south fruit growing is a multi-million-dollar industry.