Plant Diseases That Threaten

U.S. Agriculture

Identified and Prepared For Under the

National Plant Disease Recovery System

The National Plant Disease Recovery System (NPDRS) is called for in Homeland Security Presidential Directive Number 9 (HSPD-9) which was issued in February of 2004.  The purpose of the NPDRS is to ensure that the tools, infrastructure, communication networks, and capacity required to mitigate the impact of high consequence plant disease outbreaks are such that a reasonable level of crop production is maintained in the U.S.

Each recovery plan listed below is intended to provide a brief primer on a threatening disease, assess the status of critical recovery components, and identify disease management research, extension, and education needs for that disease.  These recovery plans are not intended to be stand-alone documents that address all of the many and varied aspects of a plant disease outbreak and all of the decisions that must be made and actions taken to achieve effective response and recovery.  They are, however, documents that will help USDA and others guide efforts directed toward preparation for and recovery from new plant diseases in the U.S.

The plans are a cooperative effort of university, industry, and government scientists sponsored by The American Phytopathological Society (APS) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).  The pathogens discussed in these plans have been nominated as critical threats to U.S. agricultural production and reviewed at annual workshops of APS and USDA held in April of 2006, April of 2007, and October of 2008.  The content and recommendations of those meetings can be viewed at http://www.apsnet.org/members/npdrs/default.asp.

Table 1. Recovery plans completed, being developed, and planned.

rECOVERY PLAN	PATHOGEN	CHAIR	STATUS & Links*
Citrus leprosis	Citrus leprosis virus	John Hartung hartungj@ars.usda.gov	Being developed
Citrus variegated chlorosis (CVC)	Xylella fastidiosa	Kent Smith kent.smith@ars.usda.gov	Completed
Cyst and rootknot nematode diseases	Heterodera spp. and Meloidogyne spp.	Planned	Planned
Downy mildews of corn	Sclerophthora rayssiae var. zeae and Peronosclerospora philippinensis	Harold Coble harold_coble@ncsu.edu	Completed
Huanglongbing (HLB) of Citrus	Candidatus  Liberibacter asiaticus, L. africanus, and L. americanus	Kent Smith kent.smith@ars.usda.gov	Completed
Late wilt of corn	Harpophora maydis	Don Huber huberd@purdue.edu	Completed
Laurel wilt of avocado	Raffaelea lauricola	Randy Ploetz rcp@ifas.ufl.edu	Being developed
Laurel wilt of redbay	Raffaelea lauricola	Bud Mayfield mayfiea@doacs.state.fl.us	Being developed
Plum pox or sharka	plum pox virus (PPV)	Jim Travis Jwt2@psu.edu	Completed
Potato wart	Synchytrium endobioticum	Lynnae Jess jess@msu.edu	Completed
Ralstonia bacterial wilt of potato and carnation	Ralstonia solanacearum, race 3, biovar 2	Jeffrey Jones jbjones@ufl.edu	Completed but under revision
Red leaf blotch (RLB) of soybean	Pyrenochaeta glycines	Glen Hartman ghartman@uiuc.edu	Completed
Rice bacterial blights	Xanthomonas oryzae pathovars	Kent Smith kent.smith@ars.usda.gov	Being developed
Scots pine blister rust	Cronartium flaccidum	Mee-Sook Kim mkim@fs.fed.us	Completed
Slime disease of grasses	Rathayibacter toxicus	Anne Vidaver avidaver1@unl.edu	Being developed
Stem rust of wheat (Ug99)	Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici	Tim Murray tim_murray@wsu.edu	Being developed
Tree–ornamental diseases caused by Phytophthora spp.	Phytophthora spp.	Planned	Planned
Tree and shrub diseases caused by P. kernoviae	Phytophthora kernoviae	Mike Benson mike_benson@ncsu.edu	Completed
Walnut canker of thousands	Geosmithia sp.	Ned Tisserat ned.tisserat@colostate.edu	Being developed
Wheat blast	Magnaporthe grisea	Planned	Planned
Wheat rusts	Puccinia spp.	Harold Coble harold_coble@ncsu.edu	Completed

*Completed recovery plans are linked to this site.

Two overriding concerns of the program discussed at our annual workshops are how to deal with the thousands of documented exotic diseases that may enter the United States and how to prepare for diseases that are yet unknown?  We believe that the solution is the Martyn Method.  Simply put, the Martyn Method prepares for all diseases by developing a core group of recovery plans that represent every type of pathogen that could arrive or develop.  When an unexpected pathogen does arrive or emerge, one of the representative plans is used as a model to quickly assemble a new recovery plan for the unexpected pathogen.  We are still struggling with how many and what types of recovery plans are needed to form the core group of recovery plans, but we do have a good start as the chart above attests.  Future APS/USDA workshops are planned to resolve this issue.

Please direct any questions or comments concerning NPDRS to Kent Smith.