Quick answer: No.

Details:
Most plants with RRD have a breakdown in their flowers (missing reproductive parts) so seeds from them are coming from canes without apparent infections.
A similar disease in corn and wheat led to the only vaguely applicable research: someone was going to sue their seed source because of an infected field (a million dollar loss) so there was funding to see if seeds from infected fields carried the infection. They tested several tens of thousands of seeds and the incidence of infection was under ten plants and (because these were IIRC field tests) there was no way to prove that the infection didn't come from elsewhere, but there was NO high incidence of infection.

The problem is: it isn't possible to prove a negative statement. But, for now, the preponderance of evidence indicates (almost) no transmission, if not "no transmission".
I feel better about putting that almost in there, because we really don't know if RRD would act the same in all roses from all classes or if it would spread within one class of plants much faster than in others.

Thank you Ann.

It is my understanding that phytoplasmas (if that is what RRD is) can be tranferred through seeds.

http://www.brassica.info/info/publications/cn/Cruciferae%20Newsletter_vol27_2008.pdf#page=22

Here is a link that might be useful: 2008 scientific paper

Henry,
The first scientist to publish a photomicrograph from a TEM on phytoplasmas has seen photomicrographs of an RRD infected New Dawn leaf and I asked him if he saw phytoplasmas in that New Dawn Leaf.
His answer was "NO" and there is a published juried paper in which the virus-like particles that were in that New Dawn leaf are detailed.

(The phytoplasmas that he reported were in Black Locusts with witches' broom. Again, similar symptoms, but different diseases...Do you ever watch the TV show House?)

I have the New Dawn full paper. Although they discussed the possibility of a phytoplasma in the introduction, they did not mention ruling it out in their discussion or conclusion. They did find the particles that others reported:

"The particle size range (110Â180 nm) and morphology
(double-membrane bound) of the VLPs in R.
wichuraiana safrano support the statement that the
VLPs "may represent a new group of plant pathogens
(Kim et al. 1995)"

The following paper delivered at a recent meeting by an undergraduate reporting on his senior research project suggests that those particles are indicative of a phytoplasma.

Title: Investigation into the causal agent of rose rosette disease.

Author: Redington, James.

Author affiliation: Shippensburg University, Shippensburg, PA, USA.

Source: Abstracts of Papers, 239th ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, United States, March 21-25, 2010.

Abstract: "Rose Rosette Disease (RRD) is a malady of wild and cultivated roses transmitted by the eriophyid mite Phyllocoptes fructiphilus. The causal agent of RRD which induces erratic growth in infected roses is unknown. Phytoplasma are intracellular bacteria exclusive to plant and insect species and have been identified as the causal agent for over 1000 different plant diseases. The pathol. growth of RRD, such as Witches' broom and phyllody, is also seen in some diseases caused by Phytoplasma and electron micrographs of RRD infected tissue have found spherical particles, roughly 120 to 200 nm in diam., that are not inconsistent with the size and appearance of Phytoplasma. We are testing this hypothesis using several PCR-based assays for the detection of Phytoplasma DNA in both infected rose and eriophyid mites."
---------------------------------
The reason I stated "(if that is what RRD is)" in my original answer is that it appears that further research is needed to definitely characterise what RRD is.

Here is a link that might be useful: Abstract of New Dawn paper

Henry,
Have you read all the Gergerich et al papers, including the one about the group of pathogens that she and coworkers proposed as a new class of viruses based on ultra-microstructure as well as some similarity of symptoms across generic lines?

Remember the paper by Epstein and Hill when they tested RRD infected roses with streptomycin and it didn't cure them? (Streptomycin supposedly being a cure for phytoplasmas.)

Was the Shippensburg abstract for a paper or a poster session?

Ann, it would be very helpful (to me) if you would give the links to articles that you are discussing.

The following link is to a 2006 research paper by Gererich and others related to rose rosette disease:
http://etmd.nal.usda.gov/bitstream/10113/38936/1/IND43821653.pdf

Google Scholar states that it has been cited by 5 more recent papers:

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%E2%80%A2Tzanetakis%2C+I.E.%2C+Gergerich%2C+R.C.%2C+and+Martin+R.R.%2C+2006.++A+new+Ilarvirus+identified+in+rose.++Plant+Pathology+55%3A568.+&hl=en&btnG=Search&as_sdt=100000000001&as_sdtp=on

It is my understanding that the virus that the 2006 paper found was Rose Spring Dwarf not RRD:

http://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/abs/10.1094/PDIS-92-4-0508
--------------------------------------

Regarding Streptomycin as a test for a phytoplasma.

The following quote is from a 2007 scientific paper (Occurrence, distribution and detection of potato purple top phytoplasma disease in the Punjab (Pakistan))
http://www.bulletinofinsectology.org/pdfarticles/vol60-2007-377-378nasir.pdf :

"Streptomycin and Penicillin were not effective at all."

--------------------------------------

I no longer attend National American Chemicial Meetings due to age related problems so I do not know the mode of presentation.

Henry,
That 2006 paper ended up being a dead end. They collected a sick rose from out in the middle of nowhere and they hoped that that R. multiflora would have been seed sown from a healthy multiflora. The Disease that they found wasn't RSD but another rose virus that they have since found is closer to something else.

If you go to the bibliography at the back of my ebook, the new group of plant viruses is a paper by Ahn, Kim, Gergerich, Jensen and Anderson 1996. In Submicrosc. Cytol. Pathol.

I expect you've seen all those papers already.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bibliography in E-book

Ann, that is a relatively old (1996 paper) that is discussed along with other previous papers in the 2004 New Dawn introduction. Apparently those authors, the reviewers, and the editor did not feel that the evidence up to 2004 was conclusive:

"In spite of numerous studies, RRD remains somewhat enigmatic. Indeed, although many attempts have been made to isolate and characterize the causative agent, Epstein and Hill (1999) and Rohozinski et al. (2001) still consider reports on its identification to be speculative. These speculations include a phytoplasma-like organism (Gergerich and Kim 1983), a phytoplasma (Epstein et al. 1993), a virus, or virus-like agent (Di et al. 1990; Epstein and Hill 1995; Kim et al. 1995; Ahn et al. 1996; Rohozinski et al. 2001), and a mycoplasma-like organism (Doudrick 1984). Particularly impressive, however, have been the descriptions of virus-like particles (VLPs) and double membrane-bound particles (DMPs) that are associated with RRD and a variety of other plant diseases (Ahn et al. 1998; Rohozinski et al. 2001). The evidence is suggestive that these particles are the causative agent of these plant diseases. Ahn et al. (1996) actually stated that "it is believed that the DMPs are viral in nature and are the causal agents of the diseases."
Nevertheless, Epstein and Hill (1995) state that "the identity of the causal agent is unknown" and "the relationship of DMPs to the infection process is unclear."
Again, Epstein and Hill (1999) state, "The causal agent of RRD has not been determined." Epstein and Hill (1995, 1999) and Rohozinski et al. (2001) presented data suggesting a low probability that the causal agent is a phytoplasma-like organism. Epstein and Hill (1999) speculate that the VLPs "seem to be a response of the diseased plant rather than the causal agent itself."
------------------------------------
In Europe similar infection symptoms have been associated with phytoplasma infections.
http://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/abs/10.1094/PDIS.2004.88.11.1283A

This group of authors, reviewers, and editor also seem to indicate that the work before 2004 was not definitive:

"Virus-like diseases of rose plants of uncertain aetiology have been widely distributed throughout the world (4). Symptoms include dieback, rose rosette, witches' broom, and bud proliferation. Research conducted in England (4) and the United States (1) could not reveal the etiology of the diseases."

Here is a link that might be useful: Europe research

Until real money goes after the problem, the inconclusiveness will persist.

Did you know it took about a hundred years to solve the Blackcurrent Reversion Associated Disease complexity? Now declared to be a virus because it meets all four of Koch's postulates.

Is there anything in terms of an effective treatment that doesn't include pesticides? I have a no-spray garden because I have two young children, but I've been losing at least one rose a year to RRD. The newest one with symptoms: the Reve d'Or I was given as a cutting at Jean's rose party five years ago. I'm just sick...not sure what I'll replace it with, but maybe some hydrangeas. {{gwi:265348}} It's all one plant.

Remontrant,
That's a beauty.
Try to remove the cane(s) with RRD. It might work at this time of the year.
Two years ago, at the UT gardens, I was working with some volunteers trying to teach them pruning techniques for non-HT roses. There is a huge Duchess d'Auerstadt in the garden (Ione planted it!!) and way out on one cane, there was RRD at three of the nodes from the previous year. We cut it-that one cane- back (all ten feet of it). We caught it in time.

On my Lamarque, I first found it close to the roots and we couldn't save it.

But give your Reve a chance.

Companion plantings are a way to get beneficial insects into the area of the plant and benes eat eriophyid mites.

I know people say that Marigolds are mite magnets. I have one row of Orleans Rose-kin polys that love the red clay they are in. Sadly, I loose one of them every other year to RRD. So this year, I'm planting short marigolds around them. Yes those marigolds will have mites (I hope), but those mites will provide food for the beneficials that eat them and I hope that the benes will spread into the roses that will be very, very close. Anyway, that's this years test and I hope to follow it for five years.

For possible "mite-eaters" see:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rosesorg/msg0512200111952.html?1

Here is a link that might be useful: Entomologist's recommendation

Thanks to you both. I bought some marigolds today. I cut back the infected cane when I discovered it...maybe it will pull through.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:265347}}