The U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA/APHIS) recently announced a quarantine for huanglongbing (HLB) in Mississippi as well as updates to Mexican fruit fly (Mexfly) quarantines in Texas.
HLB
APHIS, in cooperation with the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce, established a quarantine for the entire state of Mississippi for HLB. The action was taken because of HLB detections in plant tissue samples collected from residential properties in Harrison County.
APHIS is applying safeguarding measures on the interstate movement of regulated articles from the state of Mississippi. This action is necessary to prevent the spread of HLB to non-infested areas of the United States. More details can be found on the APHIS Citrus Greening website.
MEXFLY
From late January to mid-February, APHIS and the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) took the following actions regarding Mexfly quarantines:
- Established a quarantine in Sullivan City, Hidalgo County.
- Established a quarantine in Lyford, Willacy County.
- Expanded the Bayview Mexfly quarantine in Cameron County.
- Expanded the Harlingen-Sebastian quarantine in Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties.
- Established a quarantine in Palmview, Hidalgo County.
- Established the Sullivan City quarantine. The quarantine area is 55 square miles and contains no commercial agriculture.
- Established the Lyford quarantine. The quarantine area is 71 square miles and contains no commercial agriculture.
- Expanded the Bayview quarantine by 19 square miles, to 91 square miles. There are 292 acres of commercial citrus in the quarantine area.
- Expanded the Harlingen-Sebastian quarantine by 78 square miles, to 335 square miles. There are 1,479 acres of commercial citrus in the quarantine area.
- Established the Palmview quarantine. The quarantine area is 69 square miles and contains 980 acres of commercial citrus.
Photo by Jeffrey W. Lotz, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
APHIS is applying safeguarding measures and restrictions on the interstate movement of regulated articles to prevent the spread of Mexfly to non-infested areas of the United States, as well as to prevent the entry of these fruit flies into foreign trade. APHIS is working with TDA to eradicate transient Mexfly populations.
The APHIS exotic fruit flies website contains descriptions and maps of the quarantine areas, as well as all current federal fruit fly quarantine areas.
Source: APHIS
Share this Post
Sponsored Content