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Over the past month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) have expanded the Santa Clara Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly) quarantine in California three times. Their actions resulted in the inclusion of a portion of Alameda County in the quarantine while also expanding the quarantine area in Santa Clara County.
On Sept. 29, APHIS and CDFA expanded the Santa Clara Medfly quarantine in response to the confirmed detections on Sept. 17 of three wild mated female Medflies from traps in a persimmon tree and an orange tree on residential properties in the city of San Jose. This action expanded the quarantine by 2 square miles and included one acre of commercial agriculture.
The second expansion was on Oct. 2. The agencies further increased the Santa Clara Medfly quarantine in response to the confirmed detection on Sept. 23 of one wild mated female Medfly from a trap in an orange tree on a residential property in the city of San Jose. This action expanded the quarantine by 21 square miles and included 3 acres of commercial agriculture.
The third expansion took place Oct. 8. APHIS and CDFA expanded the quarantine in response to the confirmed detection on Sept. 29 of one wild unmated female Medfly from a trap in a peach tree on a residential property in the city of San Jose. This action expanded the quarantine by 4 square miles and did not include additional commercial agriculture. The amended quarantine encompasses 196 square miles with 47 acres of commercial agriculture, including grape, olive, orange, pepper, stone fruit and tomato.
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. APHIS 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.
See the APHIS Exotic Fruit Flies web page for descriptions and maps of all current federal fruit fly quarantine areas.
Source: APHIS
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