Florida Field Study- Essential Documents for Review

   
Lesion Ages   Results of DNC Method, Site D1 (Gottwald, 2002)  

 

Contents:

This webpage provides the supporting documentation related to the investigation of the Florida field study. See Florida field study - Appendices for the critical review of the study.

A complete review all aspects of the Citrus Canker Eradication Program, including the field study is provided in my book:

Florida's Citrus Canker: Pieces of a Puzzle

by David Lord

The primary source of information for the investigation in Chapter 7 was the April 2002 article on the study, published by Dr. Gottwald and other scientists in Phytopathology as provided below:

A 1900-ft radius was used as the distance needed to capture the next generation of infected trees. Every citrus within this circle was destroyed. The eradication circle approach was employed in residential areas, groves and nurseries.

I termed the methodology as the "DNC approach" which now, 25 years later, has never been used to analyze the patterns created by citrus canker in any environment (residential, commercial groves, or nurseries). Part of the difficulty is identifying the initial date of infection, which the article below terms the IID. No other study has ever attempted to collect from surveys, estimates of the exact date a citrus became infected.

Gottwald, T.R., X. Sun, Riley, T. Graham, J.H.,  Ferrandino, F. and Taylor, E., 2002, Geo-Referenced Spatiotemporal Analysis of the Urban Citrus Canker Epidemic in Florida, Phytopathology, Vol 92, No. 4. 

Prior to this article, Dr. Gottwald and other scientists published the following article:

Gottwald, T.R.,  Hughes, G., Graham, J.H, Sun, X., Riley, T., 2001, The Scientific Basis of Regulatory Eradication Policy for an Invasive Species, Phytopathology, 91:30-34.

The following article was published long after the end of the CCEP, and is not part of the field study review as presented in the appendices. However, the maps showing infected tree locations in each site were used in Appendix A of the field review.

Neri, F., Cook, A., Gibson, G.J., Gottwald, T.R., Gilligan, C.A., 2014. Bayesian Analysis for Inferences of an Emerging Epidemic: Citrus Canker in Urban Landscapes. PLos. Comp Biol. 10(4).

Documents released by FDACS by court order, in November 2000, as identified as "Dr. Gottwald's Nov 2000 powerpoint presentation" was essential in this review.

Related Chapters in book: 1, 3, 6- 9, Appendices A to G.

Broward Court Documents

Copies of slides were entered in open court by FDACS as evidence on Nov 9, 2000 in Case 00-18394 (08). Original documents are available from the Broward District Court clerk.

Presentation by Dr. Gottwald on November 9, 2000

Note: Not all slides are included. Quality in some cases is poor due to repetitive copying. It is likely the same presentation was made at the International Citrus Canker Research Workshop in June, 2000.

Reproduced Broward Court slides of field results

Interim Report sent to FDACS/DPI, Oct 13, 1999

 

 

 

 

Supporting Documents:

The only information provided to residents was a single page brochure with the intent of soliciting their cooperation prior to year 2000.

Important documents on the field study were submitted to the Broward Court by court order in November 2000, about 5 weeks before the eradication program in residential Miami-Dade County was expected to end.

Department's Press Releases

February 26, 1998 FDACS Press Release announcing the moratorium and one year field study

June 17, 1999 FDACS Press Release announcing the completion of the study.

February 11, 2000 FDACS Press Release, Crawford Unveils a Bold New Plan

Florida Citrus Production Production Research Council (FCPRAD)

The Florida Citrus Production Research Advisory Council (FCPRAC) status reports provide status reports on the field study and related research for years 1999, 2000 and 2001 on Project No 981-29.

Besides Drs. Graham and Gottwald, no other scientists are included in the project.

July 1998 to June 1999 Status on Proj. 981-29

July 1999 to June 1999 Status on Proj. 981-29P

July 2000 to June 2001 Status on Proj. 981-29P

FCPRAC Legacy Reports (source for all reports)

As documented in my book, the status reports show conflicting descriptions of the study sites. The first year status report states all areas were surveyed monthly and that more than 12,000 citrus trees were in the sites. In a Risk Assement report on May 11, 1999, it was stated that nearly 15,000 citrus trees were in the study sites.

In the thrird year, it was stated that the study sites were surveyed at least 3 times during the 18-month study and there were over 19,000 trees in the sites. .