For immediate release MONDAY, MARCH 29, 2004

Contact: Patrick Jennings
(502) 564-5126

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer has issued a quarantine on all California nursery stock in an effort to prevent the fungus-like pathogen that causes Sudden Oak Death (SOD) syndrome from entering the Commonwealth.

One Kentucky nursery has imposed a voluntary quarantine while the University of Kentucky tests samples from the nursery to determine whether the pathogen is in the state.

“This disease has done tremendous damage to oak forests in California,” Commissioner Farmer said. “Kentucky’s extensive stands of oak provide jobs for hundreds of Kentuckians, and I have chosen to act quickly to protect Kentucky trees and Kentucky workers.”

The quarantine prohibits plant material, soil, unprocessed wood or wood products, including firewood, logs, lumber, wreaths, garlands, and greenery, originating from California to be brought into Kentucky. The ban does not include kiln-dried lumber, fumigated logs, sterilized soil and surface treated seeds.

The quarantine will remain in effect until further notice.

The disease was first identified in this country in California in 2000 and is blamed for killing tens of thousands of oaks there. For the past three years SOD has largely been confined to 12 counties on the California coast. Camellias infected with the SOD pathogen were found in a small nursery in Washington last year and traced back to a southern California nursery outside the confinement area that ships plant material throughout the country.

The National Association of State Foresters says 38 plant species are susceptible to SOD. Mortality is most often associated with oaks rather than other of the 22 host species.

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