Country: United States

Title: ‘Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus’ (Citrus Greening): APHIS Expands the Quarantined Area in California, Texas, and Louisiana.

Contact:
Angela McMellen Brannigan, Citrus Health Response Program National Coordinator, at 301-851- 2314.

Report:

Effectively immediately, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), in cooperation with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), the California citrus industry, the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA), the Texas citrus industry, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF), and the Louisiana citrus industry is expanding the area quarantined for citrus greening (Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus) in California, Texas, and Louisiana. APHIS is adding portions of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties in California, all of Kleberg, Kenedy, and Webb Counties in Texas, and all of Plaquemines and Saint Bernard Parishes in Louisiana. APHIS is taking this action because of citrus greening detections in plant tissue samples collected in multiple locations in these states.

APHIS is applying safeguarding measures on the interstate movement of regulated articles from the regulated areas in California, Texas, and Louisiana. These measures parallel the intrastate quarantine that the CDFA initiated on July 23, 2019, that TDA established on June 5, 2019, and that LDAF established on December 21, 2018. This action is necessary to prevent the spread of citrus greening to non-infested areas of the United States.

The specific changes to the regulated areas in California, Texas, and Louisiana can be found at:

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant-health/citrus-greening

APHIS will publish a notice of this change in the Federal Register.

Under IPPC Standards, 'Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus' is considered to be a pest that is present, only in some areas, and subject to official control to limit its spread in the United States.

Posted Date: Aug. 23, 2019, 9 a.m.