Still No Sudden Oak Death Seen in Missouri, Illinois

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Preliminary tests in Missouri and Illinois show that there are no cases of sudden oak death disease here, spokesmen for each state's agriculture department said this week.

However, more tests are in the offing, including ones to be done on plants in about 20 nurseries or garden centers in each state, according to Jeff Squibb, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Agriculture, and Mike Brown, entomologist with the Missouri Department of Agriculture.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is to be a partner in samplings of plants from these nurseries.

The USDA recently allocated $45,000 per state for a national program of sudden oak death testing, said Claude Knighten, spokesman for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the USDA.

Sudden oak death is the common name for a disease caused by the fungus-like organism Phytophthora ramorum. It attacks and kills oaks and certain other plants. It doesn't harm humans or animals.

The lumber industry could be hurt most if sudden oak disease were found here, with about a third of the state of Missouri covered by forests of oak, plus walnut, pine and red cedar.

Oaks in the state of California - which supplies ornamental plants to many nurseries and garden centers around the country - have been hardest hit by the disease over the last decade. Tropical plants from Asia are suspected to have carried sudden oak death to this country.

And this spring for the first time, a smattering of ornamental plants - principally camellias shipped around the country from two California nurseries, Monrovia and Specialty Plants - tested positive for the disease.

Four states - Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana and West Virginia - have put restrictions on imports of all Monrovia nursery plants. The USDA, meanwhile, has forbidden Specialty Plants from shipping possible host plants to any state.

Squibb said Wednesday, "To be absolutely sure that sudden oak death is not in Illinois, a second test is being performed - a grow out, if you will, of plant material placed in the culture dish." If sudden oak death is present, he said, the fungus grows.

In Missouri, all camellias that could be traced back to the California nurseries tested negative, Brown said.

He added, "And just through our routine inspection over the last couple of weeks, we've been looking for symptomatic plants and at general stocks coming in. A few plants that weren't camellias have been submitted for testing - rhododendrons and blueberries - and all tested negative."

Sometime in the next two to three weeks, Missouri and Illinois will start the national survey. Selection of nurseries to be tested "is based on the host material they've received from California and other locations," he said. Oak trees are primary host plants, although there are others that could host the disease.

At each nursery, Brown said, "40 samples will be taken, or about 800 samples collected in Missouri from different regions in the state."