Federal and state agriculture officials on Sept. 6 established a Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata; Medfly) quarantine in Alameda County, California. On Sept. 11, this quarantine was expanded to include a small portion of Santa Clara County. The actions were 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).
The Sept. 6 action was in response to the confirmed detection by CDFA of a mated wild female Medfly in the city of Fremont on Aug. 28 from a trap in an orange tree in a residential area. The Sept. 11 expansion followed detections from Sept 3–5 of two unmated wild female Medflies and one male Medfly from traps in fig and persimmon trees in residential areas.
The quarantine area encompasses approximately 83 square miles, including 49 acres of commercial agriculture production of various commodities.
USDA APHIS is applying safeguarding measures and restrictions on the interstate movement of regulated articles to prevent the spread of Medfly to non-infested areas of the United States, as well as to prevent the entry of these fruit flies into foreign trade. The federal agency is working with CDFA and the agricultural commissioners of Alameda and Santa Clara counties to respond to these detections following program guidelines for survey, treatment and regulatory actions.
The establishment 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 these changes in the Federal Register.
More information about the Medfly quarantine area may be obtained from USDA APHIS National Policy Manager Richard Johnson at richard.n.johnson@usda.gov or at 301-851-2109.
Source: USDA APHIS
Share this Post
Sponsored Content