KENTUCKY — The Kentucky Department of Agriculture launched a website for updated information on packages containing suspicious seeds being sent to Kentuckians and others across the country.

What You Need To Know

  • Kentuckians receive suspicious package of seeds

  • Packages appear to come from China

  • Commissioner of agriculture warns to not plant the seeds and report any packages received

  • Kentucky is fourth state to report the packages
Commissioner of Agriculture Ryan Quarles warned residents about the seeds earlier this week. The seeds, he said, appear to originate from China.
 
The nature of the packages, which appear to originate from China, is unknown.

“It is incredibly important that if you receive a package of foreign or unfamiliar seeds, you report it to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture immediately,” Quarles said. “At this point in time, we don’t have enough information to know if this is a hoax, a prank, an internet scam, or an act of agricultural bio-terrorism. Unsolicited seeds could be invasive and introduce unknown diseases to local plants, harm livestock or threaten our environment. If you have received such a package, do not plant the seeds and immediately contact the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.”

Those who receive the seeds should place them in an airtight bag and send it to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) at:

USDA-APHIS PPQ

P.O. Box 475

Hebron, Kentucky 41048.

“I want to reiterate: do not plant the seeds,” Quarles said. “We don’t know what they are, and we cannot risk any harm whatsoever to agricultural production in the United States. We have the safest, most abundant food supply in the world and we need to keep it that way.”

Kentucky is now the fourth state to report the packages, and several other states have opened investigations into them.