United States Department of Agriculture
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Phytophthora ramorum
Actions
Phytophthora ramorum
Since the early 1990s, oaks and tanoaks have been dying in the coastal counties of California. Since then, other types of plants have been found to be infected or associated with this disease, referred to as Sudden Oak Death (SOD), ramorum leaf blight or ramorum dieback. Phytophthora ramorum is a harmful pathogen that can cause mortality in several oak tree species and also causes twig and foliar diseases in numerous native and non-native ornamental plants, shrubs, and trees within the United States.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is updating domestic regulations for Phytophthora ramorum (P. ramorum), the causal agent of Sudden Oak Death. From 2004 to 2013, APHIS issued a series of Federal Orders to deregulate nurseries where the pathogen has never been found or had not been found recently. These orders relieved regulatory burden on states and industries where the P. ramorum is not present in the environment and from nurseries free of the pathogen. The orders also placed nurseries with recent detections under greater restriction and Federal oversight.
Now, APHIS is codifying these Federal Orders with a final rule. APHIS collected and responded to public comments on this rule in 2018. APHIS has determined that updating the domestic regulations to include all Federal Orders issued in recent years will make it easier to find and comply with current restrictions which are necessary to protect the United States from the artificial spread of P. ramorum.
This action will go into effect May 20, 2019.
Detection History
Sudden Oak Death was first reported in 1995 in Mill Valley (Marin County) on tanoak. Since that time, the pathogen has been confirmed on various native hosts in fifteen coastal California counties (Marin, Santa Cruz, Sonoma, Napa, San Mateo, Monterey, Santa Clara, Mendocino, Solano, Alameda, Contra Costa, Humboldt, Trinity, Lake, and San Francisco), and in Curry County, Oregon. Through ongoing surveys, APHIS-PPQ continues to define the extent of the pathogen’s distribution in the US and limit its artificial spread beyond infected areas through quarantine and a public education program.
Regulation
Quarantine Information
Response
Program Updates and Reviews
Protocols
Resources
Contact:
William Wesela
National Policy Manager
Telephone: 301-851-2229
E-mail: William.D.Wesela@aphis.usda.gov