Sudden Oak Death - Georgia response

Sudden Oak Death is a real worry to landscapers, nursery owners and Georgia plant health experts.

Paul J. Pugliese, Plant Protection Division, Georgia Department of Agriculture recently updated me:

"So far, the original 13 GA nurseries are the only "officially" confirmed positive nurseries according to USDA's lab in Beltsville, Maryland. However, we have since tested 14 more nurseries as PCR positive through the UGA lab.

"Presently, we are not releasing the information (names) for the remaining 14 nurseries because the USDA lab in Maryland has not "officially" confirmed these nurseries as positive. Since the process for "official confirmation" takes so long through the Maryland lab, we state folks at the GDA have decided to take it upon ourselves to go ahead and require destruction of plants at all of these locations based solely on UGA's results.

"To make a long story short, all 27 nurseries that have tested positive have since been decontaminated, infected plants destroyed, and released from "hold orders" placed by the State and Fed's. That pretty much takes care of all locations that originally received infected plants from Monrovia, CA.

"So far we have had 834+ samples that have been sent to the UGA lab. About 150 of these are homeowner samples that have been submitted. As far as homeowner samples, we have received 14 homeowner samples that tested positive to date. All negative results should be forwarded through the Extension Service back to the County Agents.

"Positive homeowner samples are being handled by my inspectors for notification. Once we notify the homeowner, we arrange a time/date to go to the location to remove/destroy the infected plants. We are then pulling more samples and will continue to monitor/survey the locations for the next couple of years.