Citrus Canker is a contagious bacterial disease that poses no threat to humans – but seriously diminishes trees’ fruit production.

Citrus is the sunshine state’s second biggest industry, behind tourism – generating more than 9-Billion dollars a year.

Mark Fagan with the state’s Citrus Canker Eradication Program says hurricane Wilma spread the disease to such an extent eradication is out of the question.

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“It was determined that it could affect anywhere from 180 to 220 thousand acres of citrus. So as a result the USDA determined that the eradication of citrus canker just simply was not feasible anymore.”

The state’s eradication program HAD called for the destruction of ALL trees within 19-hundred feet of an infected tree.

Fagan says that’s no longer the plan – but that INFECTED trees will still be destroyed, just not potentially EXPOSED trees.

There are somewhere between 6 and 7-hundred thousand acres of citrus in Florida. If the 19-hundred foot rule continued to be used, it would have meant destroying nearly a third of the state’s total crop.