Niagara fruit crops holding up - Denver Business Journal:

http://hotesite.com/en/site-guard-and-security/news_2008-07-07-14-52-09-515.html
But many more orchards and other including residential areas in the Lake Ontario Fruit Belt, remain to be testedx for plum pox virus before September. Teams workingh for the and the statd Department of Agriculture and Markets began taking leaf samplesin May. Subsequent laboratory tests did not disclose any new outbreaks of the virus inNiagarwa County, Jackie Klahn, director of the USDA’w Lockport field office, said. In early May, as orchards blossomed, optimis was growing that the spread ofthe disease, whicjh made its Niagara County debut 2006 mighyt be waning.
Between 2006 and 2008, plum pox was discoveredr in several NiagaraCounty orchards, in Orleans County and Waynew County, east of Rochester. Though harmless to humans and the virus poses an economic risk for commercial fruit growers because they must destro y all susceptible treeswithin 1.5 miles to 2 milesw of an identified hot spot. Plum pox destroysw the commercial value of the fruit that it attack because it discolors anddisfigures peaches, plums, prunesw and nectarines. In New York state counties lying alongfLake Ontario’s south shore, fruit growinh is a multi-million-dollar industry.