There's a bacterial infection threatening to wipe out much of Florida's citrus crop and there's a growing concern of the same threat in California.
The disease has shown up in urban areas in California so far.
Florida farmers are combating the disease by using a new type of treatment: antibiotics, which are typically used to treat UTI's, TB and other illnesses.
That pesticide could show up in our bodies too.
Both the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have warned and objected of its use to the EPA.
There is a concern of antibiotic resistance in humans by using the pesticide.
Roger Smit, general manager of Tree Source Citrus Nursery in Exeter, Calif., spoke to KNX In-Depth Monday afternoon and says "the state and growers of California have been working diligently to make people aware of the threat of the disease." TreeSource is a full-service commercial citrus nursery that serves the California citrus industry and greenhouse growers around the world.
"The threat is really serious," he said.
He said it is spread by a bug called the Asian citrus psyllid.
Smit said it's only in urban areas in Southern California right now and the way it works in plants is diseases are spread by vectors, and in this case, the vector is the bug, which flies from an infected tree to another tree.
He said solutions to protect the industry are to remove the infected trees in urban areas in SoCal and reduce the population of the bugs.
In California, more than $3.5 billion worth of crops could be at risk. There is a concern that by spraying crops of oranges lemons and limes with antibiotics, that may eventually turn up in our bodies as well.
"The antibiotics that are used for the prevention of the disease, I'm not sure if it's a correlation to human health or not," he said.