Federal and state agriculture officials on May 31 removed the Oriental fruit fly (OFF) quarantine in Sacramento County, California. The action was taken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) after three OFF life cycles elapsed with no additional detections in the area. The action releases the 106 square miles of the Sacramento County quarantine, which contained no commercial agriculture.
On Sept. 22, 2023, USDA APHIS and CDFA established an OFF quarantine in Sacramento County following the confirmed detections of eight adult male OFF from various sites in the cities of Sacramento and Rancho Cordova by CDFA between Sept. 12 and Sept. 17, 2023. CDFA confirmed one additional male OFF from Rancho Cordova on Sept. 19 and one unmated female OFF from Sacramento on Sept. 20.
USDA APHIS restricted the interstate movement of regulated articles from this area to prevent the spread of OFF to non-infested areas of the United States. The federal agency has worked cooperatively with CDFA and the Sacramento county agricultural commissioner to eradicate this transient OFF population through various control actions per program protocols. USDA APHIS and CFDA selected the quarantine release date based on a degree-day model from the date of the last detection.
The removal of this quarantine area is reflected on the APHIS exotic fruit flies website, which contains a description of all current federal fruit fly quarantine areas. USDA APHIS will publish a notice of this change in the Federal Register.
Additional information may be obtained from USDA APHIS National Policy Manager Richard Johnson at richard.n.johnson@usda.gov or 301-851-2109.
California is experiencing an unusually high number of invasive fruit fly infestations this season; learn more here.
Source: USDA APHIS
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