On October 20, 1999, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture announced the discovery of Plum Pox Virus on peaches in Adams County, PA. Up until this time Plum Pox virus had never been reported in the US.
So what is plum pox and when was it first discovered?
Plum
pox is disease of stone fruits caused by Plum Pox Virus (see box C at left).
Plum pox virus is a member of the genus Potyviridae. Members of the genus Potyvirus
have virions which are flexuous filaments with no envelopes, are aphid-transmitted
in a non-persistent, stylet-borne manner, mechanically transmitted, and may
or may not be seed-transmitted.
Plum Pox symptoms were first discovered in 1915 and 1918 by plum growers in Bulgaria. The first paper describing the viral nature of the disease was not published until 1932 when Atanosoff named it "Sarka po slivite" meaning "Pox of Plum" (=Sharka). In 1933 it was found in the apricots in Bulgaria and in the early 1960's it was found in peaches in Hungary.
So what does a plant infected with plum pox look like?
All images are from the APSnet Feature Plum Pox Potyvirus Disease of Stone Fruits
Symptoms often seen: chlorotic and necrotic patterns on leaves and/or fruit, misshapen fruit, color breaking in flower petals, premature fruit drop and bark splitting
Other Places to get information on Plum Pox
