Official Pest Report
Official Pest Reports are provided by National Plant Protection Organizations within the NAPPO region. These Pest Reports are intended to comply with the International Plant Protection Convention's Standard on Pest Reporting, endorsed by the Interim Commission on Phytosanitary Measures in March 2002.
Anastrepha ludens (Loew) (Mexican fruit fly), Removal of Quarantined Area in Cameron County, Texas – United States
Anastrepha ludens (Loew) (Mexican fruit fly), Removal of Quarantined Area in Cameron County, Texas – United States
Country: United States
Title: Anastrepha ludens (Loew) (Mexican fruit fly), Removal of Quarantined Area in Cameron County, Texas – United States
Contact:
Wayne Burnett, APHIS Exotic Fruit Fly Director, Fruit Fly Exclusion and Detection Programs, (301) 734-4387
Report: The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has lifted its quarantine for Mexican fruit fly (Mexfly) from Cameron County, Texas, effective May 10, 2010.
Cameron County has been listed as a quarantine area for Mexfly since fruit fly regulations were first established in Texas in 1927. In 2006, APHIS increased and redirected the Mexfly program activities in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas from a suppression program to cross-border eradication program. Since the initiation of the eradication program, Mexfly was declared eradicated from Willacy County, Texas, on January 29, 2008. Cameron County is the second Texas county where eradication has been achieved. This eradication leaves only Hidalgo County, Texas, remaining under quarantine for Mexfly, where restrictions remain in place on the interstate movement of regulated articles from that county in order to prevent the spread of Mexfly to noninfested areas of the United States.
APHIS has worked cooperatively with the Texas Department of Agriculture to eradicate the populations of Mexfly from Cameron County through various population control actions, including the release of sterile Mexflies and the application of foliar bait sprays.
Based on trapping surveys conducted by inspectors of the Texas Department of Agriculture and by APHIS inspectors, we have determined that Mexfly populations have been eradicated from Cameron County. The last finding of Mexfly in Cameron County was May 8, 2009. This change to the quarantine area is reflected on the following designated website, which contains a description of all the current Federal fruit fly quarantine areas:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/fruit_flies/index.shtml
Under IPPC Standards, Anastrepha ludens is considered to be a pest that is now absent: pest eradicated from Cameron County, Texas in the United States.
Posted Date: May 11, 2010, 9 a.m.