By Richard E. Fawkes

Freeport News Reporter

As the Department of Agriculture, farmers, and residents gear up to contain the citrus canker on Abaco that closed down the country's largest citrus exporter, Bahama Star Farm, it is worth noting that the State of Florida, which has been fighting that deadly bacterial disease since 1995, has recently discovered that the three hurricanes that hit the state last fall spread the infection even further.

According to a January 14, article in the Palm Beach Post newspaper in West Palm Beach, under the by-line of Susan Salisbury, Richard Gaskalla, head of the state's Agriculture Department's Division of Plant Industry, said canker was discovered in numerous neighbourhoods and groves along the paths of the hurricanes.

The discovery suggested that "the wind and rain generated by the storms moved the bacterial plague farther out of reach of state control," the article states.

Just last Thursday, David Knowles, agricultural extension in Abaco, informed members of the Abaco Agricultural Co-operative that he and his colleagues had determined that the hurricanes had helped to spread the disease in the Bahama Palm Grove.

They were testing other groves to see if the canker had spread elsewhere on the island. Results are pending.

"Gaskalla said the hurricanes have dealt a setback to the state's 10-year war against citrus canker, which blemishes fruit, causes it to drop off early and eventually fatally weakens trees," the Post article states.

"Before the storms, the state was gaining momentum, adding crews and cutting trees in the battle to stop canker."

Gaskalla, who was speaking to a packed boardroom at the Indian River Citrus League headquarters in Vero Beach, said his department was cutting 1,000 trees per week in South Florida, and probably needed to triple that.

Florida has been battling citrus canker in the state's $9 billion citrus industry since an outbreak in 1995.

Ironically, the most recent infection, in a grapefruit grove in the heart of the Indian River citrus-growing region, was discovered on January 7, the same day the Bahamas Ministry of Agriculture confirmed that the 3,700-acre Bahama Star grove, of mainly grapefruit, was infected. In the case of Florida, that entire 27-acre grove of more that 2,000 trees, was destroyed.

The Bahamas' government has yet to begin destruction of the Bahama Star grove.

The latest report is that the job is being put out to bid.

Gaskalla, according to the Post article, distributed a map showing 20 new canker infections reported since August 13, when Hurricane Charley came ashore at Punta Gorda, on Florida's west coast.

The 20 instances of infection throughout the state are all within the wind path of one or another of Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jeanne.

Since its "canker war" began in 1995, Florida has destroyed more than 3.2 million residential and commercial trees, paid $95 million to growers, with $30 million more spoken for but not paid, according to the Post.

In Abaco, the closure of Bahama Star Farm, owned by a major citrus-growing company in Fort Myers, Florida, has put over 100 workers out of work, many of whom are Haitian immigrants on work permits, and threatened the displacement of their families, who must now be relocated from their residences on the farm.

CAPTION: APPRECIATION PRESENTATION – Silbert Mills, general manager and news anchor at Radio Abaco, is presented with a book and a batch of special edition newspapers published by the Palm Beach Post to commemorate the experiences of the 2004 season in Florida by Abaco businessman Felix Sawyer, in appreciation for "Mr. Mills' outstanding coverage of Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne." The presentation was made yesterday in Mr. Mills' office at Radio Abaco in Dundas Town. (Staff photo by Richard Fawkes)