The area quarantined for HLB in San Diego County, California, has been expanded, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) announced on Sept. 23. USDA APHIS took the action in cooperation with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). HLB, a plant disease caused by Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, is also known as citrus greening.
USDA APHIS expanded the quarantined area in San Diego County by approximately 86 square miles. It is taking this action because of citrus greening detections in plant tissue samples collected from a residential property in San Diego County. There are 830 acres of commercial citrus impacted by this quarantine expansion.
APHIS is applying safeguarding measures on the interstate movement of regulated articles from the quarantined areas in California. This action is necessary to prevent the spread of HLB to non‑infested areas of the United States.
The specific changes to the quarantined areas in California can be found on the APHIS Citrus Greening and Asian Citrus Psyllid website. USDA APHIS will publish a notice of this change in the Federal Register.
Earlier this year, USDA APHIS announced it was adding portions of Los Angeles, San Diego and Ventura counties to the HLB quarantined areas; learn more here. The agency took that action because of HLB detections in plant tissue samples collected from multiple locations during routine surveys.
Additional information about HLB-quarantined areas may be obtained from USDA APHIS National Policy Manager Abby Stillwell at abby.r.stilwell@usda.gov or 919-323‑6296; or from Assistant National Policy Manager Daniel Murphy at daniel.m.murphy@usda.gov or 775-221-9237.
Source: USDA APHIS
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