USDA photo by David Bartels
Effective immediately, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), in cooperation with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), is expanding the sweet orange scab quarantine in the Santa Ana area of Orange County in California.
APHIS is expanding this quarantined area by 32 square miles because of a sweet orange scab detection in a plant tissue sample collected from a residential property in Orange County. This expansion does not impact commercial citrus. The specific changes to the quarantined areas in California can be found on the APHIS sweet orange scab website.
The fungus Elsinöe australis causes sweet orange scab. Many citrus species and hybrids are vulnerable to the disease. Infection causes scab pustules that give fruit a corky appearance. The disease can stunt young nursery trees or new field plantings and cause premature fruit to drop.
Rain, irrigation and the movement of infected plants spread E. australis. The fungal damage is superficial. It does not impact fruit quality and poses no danger to people, but the blemishes reduce marketability. In the United States, the disease was first detected in 2010 in residential citrus trees in Texas. It has since been confirmed in Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.
APHIS is applying safeguarding measures on the interstate movement of regulated articles from the quarantined areas in California. These measures parallel the intrastate quarantine that CDFA established on Dec. 30, 2024. This action is necessary to prevent the spread of the disease to non‑infested areas of the United States.
In addition to expanding the quarantine, APHIS recently revised sweet orange scab regulations. See the details here.
For additional information, contact:
Abby R. Stilwell
National Policy Manager
919-323‑6296
abby.r.stilwell@usda.gov
Daniel Murphy
Assistant National Policy Manager
775-221-9237
daniel.m.murphy@usda.gov
Source: USDA APHIS
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