APHIS Statement on Current Position on Karnal Bunt, and comments
APS has received a note
from APHIS and is glad to post it here:
APHIS has been closely watching the dialogue on the Karnal Bunt Electronic Symposium and wishes to thank the American Phytopathological Society (APS) for providing this novel forum to discuss this very important issue. APHIS also thanks APS for extending the symposium an additional two weeks.
As a regulatory agency, APHIS believes eradication is a reasonable first objective in dealing with a new quarantine pest. This position has been supported based on feedback from various industry groups, State departments of agriculture, and those involved in international trade.
After gathering data on the distribution of the causal agent, we will be deciding appropriate future actions, especially actions to prevent further spread. We believe we can control and contain this disease and develop a strategy that will allow us to reach our goal of eventually eradicating Karnal bunt in the United States.
We recognize that eradication of a causal agent of this nature is not an easy task, and APHIS welcomes suggestions and alternatives in our methodology and approach. APHIS hopes that discussions like on the Electronic Symposium, as well as research, will help to guide us in our future direction.
APHIS has been approached with many questions pertaining to the Karnal bunt program, in addition to those on the Electronic Symposium. These will be shared in a form to be announced on the APHIS World Wide Web page on Karnal bunt. The APHIS Karnal bunt web page was established in mid-March and has received more than 8,800 visitors since a counter was installed on April 3, 1996
(URL, as of August 16, 1996, for the page: www.aphis.usda.gov/oa/bunt/kbhome.html)
Please visit this site if you have not already done so, and look for the new section in the very near future.
Your comments, as usual, are more than welcome.
Be sure to RETURN HERE
after you've browsed the APHIS site!
William Brown - 01:21pm Aug 13, 1996 EDT (#1 of 2)
Well, at least we have
their attention. I do find it interesting that no one is willing
to sign their name to the statement. But progress is slow is many
things, in government it is unique as well. Anyway thanks.
Dan Biggerstaff - 11:09pm Aug 13, 1996 EDT (#2 of 2)
Western Plant Breeders
To: Anonymous at APHIS
If APHIS has been closely watching the dialogue on this APS Symposium, why has APHIS not bothered to answer specific questions directed to it by various participants?
I challenge you to answer a few of the specific questions before this Symposium concludes. There are numerous good questions in several sections of this Symposium. May I suggest a few that beg answers?
What criteria were used by APHIS and the California Department of Agriculture (CDFA) to quarantine certain areas of the US? It cannot have been merely planting host crop seed known to be contaminated with Karnal bunt teliospores. That activity precipitated quarantines of parts of NM, TX, and CA, but not other parts of CA. Was it the presence of bunted kernels in stored grain? This might explain placing quarantines on part of AZ and CA, but why not quarantine other counties in CA on this basis?
Why does the latest report on the National KB Survey indicate that all survey samples have been negative? This is absolutely untrue! A survey sample from Central CA was definitely positive for KB teliospores. If APHIS and CDFA can call this a false positive, can all other states call any positives they happen to find "false positives"?
It appears to me that APHIS pathologists are not free to publicly question the idea of "eradication of KB from the US." They know that it is not feasible, but we hear nothing from them to the contrary. Is it possible that some Washington bureaucrat has changed the definition of eradicate and has not shared it with us?
APHIS maintains that Karnal bunt was not known to occur in the US prior to March 1996. If that is true, what kind of a KB situation occured in Texas in the 1970's? This KB 'situation' prompted the USDA to send ARS pathologist(s) to Texas to 'handle' the situation. Can somebody please shed some light on this story? Maybe Dr. Hoffmann will know something about this incident.
A hearty thank you to all participants in this Symposium. I will be traveling the remainder of this week, so this may be my last opportunity to post questions.
© Copyright 1996 by the American Phytopathological Society