Federal and state agriculture officials expanded the Santa Clara Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly) quarantine twice in late October in California’s Alameda and Santa Clara counties. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) enacted the expansion.
On Oct. 21, the agencies expanded the quarantine in response to the confirmed detection on Oct. 13 of one wild unmated female Medfly from a trap in a lemon tree on a residential property in the city of San Jose, Santa Clara County. This action expanded the quarantine by 1 square mile and does not include additional commercial agriculture.
On Oct. 22, the agencies further expanded the quarantine in response to the confirmed detection on Oct. 15 of one wild mated female Medfly from a trap in an apricot tree on a residential property in the city of San Jose. This action expanded the quarantine by 1 square mile and does not include additional commercial agriculture.
The actions only expanded the portion of the quarantine in Santa Clara County. The amended quarantine encompasses 198 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.
The APHIS Exotic Fruit Flies website contains descriptions and maps of all current federal fruit fly quarantine areas. APHIS will publish a notice of this change in the Federal Register.
Source: APHIS
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