I am not a fireblight expert, but I thought it affected the new growth and the leaves go limp and black. Also I understand that there are cankers that ooze.

I have had some limbs that look like that in the past on a few of my apples. I cut it out well below the black and disinfected my saw with rubbing alcohol. The trees have not suffered any other damage afterwards, and they cam thru the summer leafing out just fine.

I hope a real fireblight expert chimes in to help.

It is not fire blight. An apple or pear tree will be infected with it on new, actively growing tips and move down the branches from there. The other branches look healthy.

However, last years growth looks pretty active. Make sure and not apply too much nitrogen fertilizer on the tree or it can cause fire blight to attack. The more vigorous the tree the greater the chance for fire blight. I personally do not fertilize my in ground pear tree to limit the chance of fire blight.

It would help to know what state you are from. It makes it easier to diagnosis a problem. If you are in a hot, humid environment the different color on the main trunk is probably just some kind of fungus. I live in SE Texas and we get many types of fungus that grows on trees. Most are harmless.

Thank you. We are in SW Michigan.

After looking at it closer, what it looks like happened was the top central leader(where the black begins) was cut off and sap ran down the stem. Then the sappy residue allowed an area for mold to grow. I don't think it is a disease, maybe someone with more experience with apples in your area will confirm or refute this theory.

The grey area below the black is just older growth. It will look different than the growth from last year.

I had a disease like that one winter on my apples. It ate away at the bark around old pruning points. I never figured out what it was and it has not come back. My wild guess was it was a form of fireblight.

funny you should mention the old pruning points scott, I got this only on my summer pruned branches. All the branches that were dormant pruned did not get this.