A pest outbreak in the tangerines in southwest China's Sichuan Province has been contained despite a brief period of panic it caused among the public.

Pest occurs in tangerine produced in Guangyuan.

The pest, tetradacus citri, occurred to tangerine crops in the Wangcang County of the Guangyuan City in Sichuan around Sept. 22, said Mou Jinyi, an engineer of the provincial agriculture department, on Tuesday.

The pests were found in about 12 tons of tangerines and caused as many as 1,200 tons of fruits to be disinfected and buried underground to prevent further spreading, he said.

The news caused panic outside the county and people began spreading text messages about not buying oranges or tangerines from Sichuan.

Mou said the tangerines in the area will not ripen until November and usually are not sold outside the province.

The pests have been contained, he added.

Wan Fanghao, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said the pests destroy fruit crops but poses no major danger to human health, according to a notice posted on the Ministry of Agriculture website on Tuesday.

A man selects tangerine in supermarket in Qingdao, Shandong Province, in east China.

(Xinhua News Agency October 22, 2008)