Federal and state agriculture officials recently made changes to huanglongbing (HLB, also known as citrus greening disease) and Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly) quarantines in California. They also removed a Mexican fruit fly (Mexfly) quarantine in Texas. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reported these changes.
CALIFORNIA HLB
On Nov. 25, APHIS and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) expanded HLB quarantines in the Capistrano Beach area of Orange County by 29 square miles and the Murrieta area of Riverside County by 129 square miles. The actions are being taken because of detections in plant tissue samples collected from residential properties in Orange and Riverside counties.
There is no commercial citrus impacted by the expansion in Orange County. There are 170 acres of commercial citrus impacted by the expansion in Riverside County.
The APHIS Citrus Greening website contains specific changes to the quarantined areas in California.
CALIFORNIA MEDFLY
On Nov. 13, APHIS and CDFA expanded the Santa Clara Medfly quarantine. This quarantine includes portions of Alameda and Santa Clara counties. The action only expands the quarantine in Santa Clara County.
The expansion was in response to the Oct. 24 confirmed detections of one wild mated female Medfly from a trap in a persimmon tree and one wild unmated female Medfly in a fig tree, and the Nov. 5 detection of one wild mated female Medfly from a trap in a fig tree. All detections were on residential properties in the City of San Jose, Santa Clara County.
The action expanded the quarantine by 19 square miles and includes 14.9 acres of additional commercial agriculture. APHIS also corrected the amount of commercial agriculture within the quarantine, reducing the previously reported commercial agriculture acreage by 3.14 acres. The amended quarantine encompasses 224 square miles with 58.76 acres of commercial agriculture, including grape, olive, orange, pepper, stone fruit and tomato.
See the APHIS Exotic Fruit Flies website for descriptions and maps of all current federal fruit fly quarantine areas.
TEXAS MEXFLY
On Nov. 20, APHIS and the Texas Department of Agriculture removed the Harlingen Mexfly quarantine in Cameron County, Texas. This action released 71.89 square miles from quarantine, including 789.1 acres of commercial citrus. Release from quarantine occurred after three generations elapsed since the date of the last detection.
Photo courtesy of Insects Unlocked from USA, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
The removal of this quarantine area is reflected on the APHIS Exotic Fruit Flies website.
Source: APHIS
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