NPDN News Volume 5 Issue 4, April 2010

Pennsylvania Plum Pox Virus awarded the Pennsylvania Plum Pox Eradication Project Receives Virus Eradication Project the 2009 Outstanding Achievement Award. This Achievement Award award recognizes efforts that are part of Rachel McCarthy, Cornell University, our day-to-day work, but go beyond the Department of Plant Pathology and scope of our duties each day to exceed Plant-Microbe Biology expectations. Sweet success! The first confirmation of Plum pox virus Ten years after in North America was confirmed by the Plum pox virus Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (known as plum in September of 1999 in an orchard in pox, PPV or Adams County Pennsylvania. The USDA sharka) was first and PDA immediately quarantined identified in the Pennsylvania townships where the Adams County, disease was found. A Scientific Issues the state of Working Group was quickly established Pennsylvania made up of expert personnel from was declared USDA’s Agriculture Research Service PPV-free. No USDA’s Don Albright, acting PA Agriculture (ARS), Center for Plant Health Science Secretary Russell Redding, producer Jim Lerew, new finds were and Technology (CPHST), PPQ, PDA, as former PA Agriculture Secretaries Dennis Wolff detected for the well as plant pathologists, horticulturists, and Sam Hayes, producer John Rice, USDA Deputy last three years entomologists and extension experts Undersecretary Ann Wright, USDA’s Paul Eggert and on October and PA Representative Will Tallman plant a 29, 2009, the peach tree at the Plum Pox Eradication Event on October 29, 2009. Photo courtesy of Pennsylvania United States Issue Highlights: Department of Agriculture. Department of Agriculture’s • Tip - Diagnosing and Aphanomyces Root Rot on Plant Health Alfalfa Seedlings Inspection Service, Plant Protection • Upcoming Workshops and Quarantine Unit (USDA-APHIS- PPQ) and Pennsylvania Department • Thousand Cankers Power of Agriculture (PDA) made the Point Presentation en Español announcement that the disease has • IT Tip - Password been eradicated from Pennsylvania. Management The eradication was the result of a decade long collaborative effort between • New Pest in FL- Citrus Black growers, industry, PDA, USDA, Spot Pennsylvania State University (PSU) • New Pest in AK, WA- Green Fruit and Research Extension Center, Alder and Adams County Extension Service.

National Institute of Earlier this month USDA-APHIS-PPQ Food and Agriculture Volume 5 Issue 4 1 from PSU. Because PPV is established conducted in all positive orchard throughout Europe, scientists working sites for three years. on the disease in Europe were brought in • A homeowner survey was developed to augment the US experts’ knowledge. and conducted within 5 miles of a The Science Panel held numerous positive detection site. meetings with growers, nurserymen, • Intensive sampling was performed of non-Prunus sp. in and around positive sites to identify potential alternate hosts. • Aphid studies were conducted to learn what species are present in the PA orchards and whether or not each might be a vector of the disease. The success of this project not only prevented the disease from becoming established in the US, it did so without disrupting the commerce of the stone fruit industry both in the US and internationally.

Symptoms on fruit with PPV may include To view the complete report on the 2009 light rings. Photo by K.D. Hickey, Penn Achievement Award for the Plum Pox State University. Virus Eradication Project visit http://www. aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/safeguarding/ packing industry professionals and the downloads/awardnoms/2009/PPV.pdf. public to educate them on the biology of the disease, the history, and the potential impact the disease could have if it were to become established in this country. In just over a month from the initial detection, PSU and Extension personnel produced a documentary to assist in educating the public about the disease. PSU and USDA economists worked up a fair compensation package for growers whose orchards would be destroyed in the eradication efforts. Removals of the orchards began in the spring of 2000; at the same time, new orchards were testing positive for the disease. The Science Panel changed the action plan to include a removal buffer zone to help stay ahead of the spread of the virus. The project included the following activities and each was essential to the success of the project: • Sentinel trees were established, maintained, and monitored throughout the removal areas. • Seedling and sucker surveys were 2 NPDN News A Technique for Diagnosing saturated field conditions, Aphanomyces Root Rot on often in low areas that remain wet. Root rots Diagnostic Alfalfa Seedlings caused by other oomycetes Julie Beale, Plant Disease Diagnostician, (such as Phytophthora Updates University of Kentucky megasperma f. sp. This assay, as well as procedures for medicaginis) produce similar symptoms a soil bioassay to detect root-infecting and occur under similar conditions. oomycetes in alfalfa, was described by It can be difficult to isolate Aphanomyces Paul Vincelli, Brian Eshenaur, Paul Bachi sp. from root tissue, but we have and Bill Nesmith in the Plant Diagnostics found that a float incubation technique Quarterly in the early 1990’s and has using germinated alfalfa seedlings as come in handy several times this spring baits works well as a rapid diagnostic already. It is a variation on the “float technique for incubation” technique used by many of confirming its us (NPDN Diagnostic Tip of the Month presence in by G. Ruhl, March 2007; Brock, J.H. and symptomatic G.H. Beard, A Simplified Technique for alfalfa seedling Recovering Pythium and Phytophthora roots. To prepare from Infected Plant Tissue). the bait seedlings, Aphanomyces euteiches is a soil-borne germinate alfalfa oomycete that attacks the tender feeder seeds (choose roots of alfalfa seedlings causing any Aphanomyces- weakening and stunting of plants (see susceptible Compendium of Alfalfa Diseases, 2nd ed., variety) in a lightly APS Press, St. Paul, MN). Leaves may moistened paper become chlorotic or slightly reddened, towel rolled up and often curl downward; however, in a plastic bag. Incubated at room Figure 2: Select necrotic roots and place in incubation infected plants do not tend to collapse plate. temperature, bait seedlings will be ready to use in 2-4 days; if needed, baits can be held in the refrigerator for about a week in the paper towel. Gently wash the roots of stunted alfalfa plants; surface disinfestation with bleach is not Figure 1: Stunted alfalfa seedlings with root necrosis. necessary and may Figure 3: Add bait seedlings and incubate in de- inhibit sporulation ionized water at room temperature. of Aphanomyces. as in damping-off. Established plants Place discolored are usually not seriously damaged by and rotting alfalfa feeder root pieces (and this root rot pathogen, but seedlings taproot sections, if symptomatic) into a can be severely stunted or killed (Figure petri plate along with several of the bait 1). Aphanomyces root rot occurs under Volume 5 Issue 4 3 seedlings and partially cover with de-ionized water (Figures 2 and 3). Incubate at room temperature. Examine plates directly under the compound microscope (instead of removing tissue and placing on a slide). I begin to look for the characteristic sporangia with encysted zoospores at the apex (Figure 4) after about 30 hours, but it may take several days of incubation. Check plates frequently as other organisms may begin to obscure the Aphanomyces. The same technique may be used to detect Phytophthora root rot in alfalfa Figure 4: Sporangium and zoospores of A. euteiches. seedlings, using Phytophthora- susceptible alfalfa baits. Photos courtesy of Julie Beale and Sara Long, University of Kentucky Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory.

Tree Pests of the Great Registration Plains Workshop Registration is $30 and must be received Two Day Judy O’Mara, Kansas by June 23, 2010. There are a limited Workshop: State University, number of seats so register early! The Department of Plant registration includes refreshments at Tree Pests of the Great Plains Pathology breaks and the Tuesday evening dinner at Fort Robinson. Make checks payable This summer the July 14-15, 2010 to the “South Dakota State University” Great Plains Tree Pest and send to: Chadron, NE Council (GPTPC) and the Great Plains Diagnostic John Ball Network (GPDN) will host a Dept. of Horticulture-Forestry two day workshop on the key , Rm 201 Northern Plains mites, diseases and disorders that Biostress Lab afflict trees and shrubs on the Great South Dakota State University Plains. The “hands-on” sessions will Brookings, SD 57007 cover the key diagnostic concerns of Questions? specialists; cankers and wood decays of [email protected] trees, identification of needle diseases (605) 688 - 4737 of conifers, and identification of borers and defoliators. The workshop Hotel accommodations will also feature presentations on The Best Western West Hills Inn will be emerald ash borer and thousand cankers holding a block of rooms until June 13, disease. 2010. Please call (877) 432 - 3305.

4 NPDN News Black Walnut Thousand Cankers Disease Workshop Ned Tisserat, University of Colorado, Black Walnut Thousand Department of Bioagricultural Sciences Cankers Disease Workshop: and Pest Management A workshop on thousand cankers June 23, 2010 disease (TCD) of walnut is scheduled for June 23rd, 2010 in Golden Colorado Jefferson County Fairgrounds (near Denver). The purpose of the Golden, CO workshop is to show participants symptoms and signs of TCD in the Denver Metro area and to provide up-to- date information on detection, diagnostics and surveillance methods for this new disease. This workshop is intended for researchers/ extension personnel, diagnosticians, regulatory officials and other professionals interested in walnut production or preservation. The workshop is sponsored by Colorado State University Extension, NPDN, The Colorado Department of Agriculture, Denver, NPDN-USDA APHIS 2010 Boulder and Wheat Ridge Parks and Now Offering Advanced Recreation, USDA Forest Service, and Diagnostic Training on USDA-NIFA. Bioinformatics The number of participants is limited. Karen L. Snover-Clift, Cornell University, Those interested in attending the Department of Plant Pathology and workshop should contact Ned Tisserat Plant-Microbe Biology ([email protected]) by May 14th. Laurene Levy, USDA-APHIS-PPQ- Please indicate the number of people CHPST-NPGBL from your institution that would like to attend and the method of arrival (by air The NPDN Diagnostics Subcommittee to DIA or car). Participants must provide and members of USDA-APHIS-PPQ- their own transportation and lodging. CHPST-National Plant Germplasm and Additional information on suggested Biotechnology Laboratory (NPGBL) hotel accommodations near DIA will be are offering training sessions on made available at a later date. We will Bioinformatics this summer. The sessions provide transportation from designated are offered the weeks of July 12, 2010 and hotels to the workshop. August 23, 2010. They will cover editing sequences, blasting sequences and what Volume 5 Issue 4 5 to do with the sequencing information. Participants of this meeting are expected Advanced to cover their travel, lodging and meal Diagnostic Training: expenses. There is no registration charge for the meeting or for meeting Bioinformatics materials. These expenses are covered by our colleagues at USDA-APHIS-PPQ- week of July 12, 2010 CPHST-NGBTL. If you are interested in week of August 23, 2010 participating in any of these workshops please contact Karen Snover-Clift at [email protected].

New Presentation Southwest division, at UC Davis. Both en Español teams are doing cutting edge research Education into the mysterious and sudden spread Dick Hoenisch, University of this insect-vectored disease from of California at Davis, and Training native species in the Southwest US into Department of Plant other Juglans species, both native and Pathology cultivated. TCD is especially threatening To assist in educating the Spanish to the two common rootstocks of English speaking population in the southwest we walnut, black walnut and the hybrid of have created a Power Point presentation black × English walnut, Paradox. on the epidemiology of thousand The presentation is also available in cankers disease of walnut (TCD) English and both links will be accessible entitled, Mil Ulceras de Nogales. The from the WPDN website. presentation is for walnut growers in the central valley of California and combines the work of Ned Tisserat and Whitney Cranshaw, of Colorado State University, and Steve Seybold of the USFS, Pacific

6 NPDN News PROGRAM AREA COMMITTEES PAC Highlights

Operations Committee • Data sharing update and strategy for future Carrie Harmon, Committee Secretary requests University of Florida, Department of Plant Pathology • Lab accreditation • Other items from the group The Operations Committe held a conference call on The next conference call is scheduled for May 27,

itteeApril 22, 2010. The following agenda items were discussed: 2010 at 2:00 pm ET.

• Welcome new at-large members from the regions m m • Ops comm meeting - UC Davis: tentative agenda and logistics o perations • Recent issue concerning HLB detection protocol O C

Diagnostics Committee • Basic technique workshop update Karen L. Snover-Clift, Committee Chair • SOP updates Cornell University, Department of Plant Pathology • Surge capacity analysis and Plant-Microbe Biology • Beltsville trainings • Committee size approval

itteeSince the last newsletter, the Diagnostics Committee • Diagnostician’s Cookbook held a conference call on April 8, 2010. During this meeting, a number of issues were addressed. The next conference call will be held on Thursday, Please refer to the website, http://npdn-portal.ceris. May 6, 2010. m m purdue.edu/diagnostics, for complete minutes of this

o meeting (login and password required). diagnosticsC

Training and Education Committee • Design of the educational booth panels Amanda Hodges, Committee Chair • Target goal: panel content ready to send to University of Florida, Entomology & Nematology NPDN T&E subcommittee by Wednesday, April Department 28, 2010. Plan to send to Ray Hammerschmidt by April 30, 2010. The Training and Education Subcommittee held • Amanda suggested corresponding via e-mail a conference call on April 19, 2010. The following during May, and following up with a NPDN ittee agenda items were discussed on the call: subcommittee conference call in June due to numerous meetings in May. All agreed. • NPDN First Detector educational booths - (American Public Gardeners Association, June Next Conference Call: June 21, 2010 at 1pm ET m m 1-2, http://www.publicgardens.org/) and NACAA (National Association of County Agricultural o Agents, July 11-15, http://www.nacaa.com/)

educationC meetings - staffing

Volume 5 Issue 4 7 PAC PROGRAM AREA COMMITTEES Highlights

l National Database Subcommittee this meeting a number of issues were addressed. Karen L. Snover-Clift, Committee Chair Please refer to the National Database page on Cornell University, Department of Plant Pathology the website, www.npdn.org (login and password and Plant-Microbe Biology required), for complete minutes of this meeting.

Since the last newsletter, the National Database • Discussion of change submissions Committee held a conference call on April 14, 2010. • Discussion of fungi pest codes beginning with The committee continues to work on reviewing the scientific names P, Q, and R massive NPDN Pest and Host lists and revising guidelines for uploading documents that will clarify The next meeting will be held on May 5, 2010.

ationaatabasehow sample diagnoses should be transmitted to the National Repository at Purdue University. During N D

Visit the NPDN homepage at www.npdn.org for more information on specific Program Area Committees.

Announcements ~ Membership information ~ Committee reports and meeting minutes ~ Documents and SOPs

8 NPDN News IT Security Tip - Password Utilizing this tool will allow Management users to abandon writing down passwords and reduce Michael Hill, CISSP CERIS - Purdue the likelihood of passwords IT News University being compromised. This Are you like me and have way too tool even provides advanced many passwords to remember? Are you features such as a strong password writing all of your passwords down and generator for whenever you need to reset storing them in a locked location? Do one of your existing passwords. you ever leave passwords out in the open where they could be compromised? One easy way to avoid all of this hassle and vulnerability is to use a password management tool. Password Safe is a free open source password management tool that will allow you to securely store all of your passwords in one electronic safe that is fully encrypted. Users create If you are interested in trying out one strong master password to the safe Password Safe, it can be downloaded at which will provide access to all of the http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/. You other passwords. It’s much easier and should check with your local IT support safer to remember one strong password staff first before installing this software. versus 50-100 easy passwords.

Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS), for Regional their annual meetings in Albany, NY. The three Updates day concurrent meetings NYSDAM Sponsors Joint featured independent Annual Meetings and joint sessions, group lunches and tours. Highlights Earlier this month the New York State included presentations on thousand Department of Agriculture and Markets cankers disease and Phytophthora (NYSDAM) hosted the Eastern Plant ramorum; updates on Asian longhorned Board, the Horticultural Inspection beetle and emerald ash borer. Customs Society, and the Eastern Region and Border Protection presented an

Volume 5 Issue 4 9 Overview of Pest Risk Activities with Read the complete announcement some surprising and alarming statistics. at http://mda.mo.gov/plants/pests/ APHIS PPQ presented on budgets, the TCDEmergencyRule.pdf Farm Bill enhancements, and Farm Bill, Section 10201 (“Plant Pest and Disease Management and Disaster Prevention”). For more information visit the National Plant Board homepage at http:// nationalplantboard.org/meetings/index.html. USDA Confirms New Citrus Disease in Florida On April 8, 2010 the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed the presence of Guignardia citricarpa, or citrus black spot, in Florida. Thousand Cankers Disease of During a routine grove survey, the Florida Department of Agriculture Walnut Exterior Quarantine and Consumer Services’ (FDACS’) Issued in Missouri Division of Plant Industry (DPI) New emergency rule prevents the collected a suspect sample from a introduction into Missouri of a newly commercial orange grove in Collier described destructive pest complex County. After conducting polymerase known as thousand cankers disease chain reaction testing of the submitted of walnut, consisting of an insect pest, tissue and DNA samples from Florida, the walnut twig beetle, Pityophthorus APHIS’ National Plant Germplasm and juglandis, and a fungal pathogen, Biotechnology Laboratory and Molecular Geosmithia morbida. Diagnostics Laboratory in Beltsville, MD, Thousand cankers disease is particularly confirmed the presence of G. citricarpa lethal to black walnut (Juglans nigra), in the samples, thereby corroborating which is of tremendous economic with FDACS-DPI’s plant pathology importance in Missouri. The Missouri laboratory’s initial diagnostic results. Department of Conservation has The full APHIS news release is available estimated that TCD could cause over at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/ $36 million in statewide wood products content/2010/04/printable/fla_citrus_disease. losses annually, over $35 million in pdf. statewide nut production losses, and over $65 million in statewide urban street tree losses. Furthermore, this economic impact assessment estimated that over a twenty (20)-year span after introduction, TCD could cause over $851 million in economic losses to the state. New Pest in Alaska and Missouri is the nation’s leader in black walnut nut production and is home to Washington - The Green Alder the world’s largest black walnut nut meat Sawfly producer. Missouri is also one of the The green alder sawfly (Monsoma largest producers of black walnut wood pulveratum) was positively identified products. from Alaska, a new U.S. record, 10 NPDN News in 2009. The first North American collection records revealed that the first records are from specimen in Alaska Newfoundland, was taken in Palmer Canada in the in 2004. By the time early-mid 1990’s. of identification, Green alder sawfly green alder sawfly is native to Europe, was found actively North Africa and defoliating thin-leaf the Near East, alder in Anchorage, where its preferred Kenai, Seward, and host is European in the Matanuska- black alder (Alnus Susitna River Valley. glutinosa). In south Green alder sawfly central Alaska, adults have been assessments recently collected in of riparian Fairbanks. In 2010, the thin-leaf alder sawfly has been found (Alnus tenuifolia) A late instar green alder sawfly. on the Columbia River defoliation events in Washington state. began in 1997 The official Pest Alert following the introduction of the woolly is available at https://www.wpdn.org/ alder sawfly (Eriocampa ovata). Green common/news_events/green_alder_sawfly/ alder sawfly larvae initially turned up MonsomaPestAlert.pdf. in these surveys in 2007. A review of

National Events September 20-24, 2010 17th Ornamental May 18-20, 2010 Workshop on Disease Upcoming NPDN Diagnostician Basic Technique and Insects Workshop Hendersonville, NC Events State College, PA November 6-8, 2011 June 23, 2010 NPDN National Meeting Black Walnut Thousand Cankers San Francisco, CA Workshop Golden, CO December 12-15, 2010 July 14-15, 2010 ESA Annual Meeting Tree Pest of the Great Plains San Diego, CA Chadron, NE August 7-11, 2010 APS Annual Meeting Nashville, TN

Rachel McCarthy, Editor United States Department of Agriculture NEPDN National Institute of Food and Agriculture Cornell University

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