Expansion into all counties where stone fruit is grown in the state will continue until all of the approximately 300 growers have been contacted and serviced by an Advance Teams. Orchard data collection and GIS mapping verification with each of the growers is a vital prerequisite for the PPV survey teams as they expand across the state. On the National Level, there was much fervor during the week surrounding the PPV Positive Control issue. States involved in the PPV National Surveillance Program expressed great concern over the positive control issue since samples processed would be basically useless without a good positive control for comparison per elisa plate. After much discussion among the ranks in PPQ, the State Departments of Agriculture and Agdia, a solution was found and the needed protocol provided by Dr. Laurene Levy to resolve the issue.
Testing can proceed as planned with confidence in the positive control as originally intended.
Many states are conducting survey under the PPV National Surveillance Program. Cooperative agreements continue to be processed for others so that survey may begin. The Regional PPV Coordinators in each region were contacted by Gary Clement, National PPV Operations Director, to provide a listing per state that is conducting survey within their respective region, the number of samples taken, acreage to date, and test results. This information will hopefully be available from each PPQ Region to include in future weekly updates. Negative data can be provided as summary data at the end of the survey season.