Country: United States

Title: Ceratitis capitata (Mediterranean fruit fly) (Medfly) – Removal of Quarantine Area in Santa Clara County, California

Contact:
Wayne Burnett, Domestic Coordinator, Fruit Fly Exclusion and Detection Programs at (301) 734-4387

Report: On October 26, 2007, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) designated a portion of Santa Clara County as a Medfly quarantine area and applied phytosanitary restrictions on the interstate movement of articles from that area to prevent the spread of Medfly to noninfested areas of the United States. Since that time, APHIS has worked cooperatively with the California Department of Food and Agriculture and Santa Clara County’s Division of Agriculture to eradicate the transient population of Medfly from that area through various population control actions, including the release of sterile Medflies and the application of foliar bait sprays.

Eradication was concluded after sufficient time passed without finding additional Medflies in the area. Specifically, an intensified fruit fly trap surveillance system was deployed and monitored for three life cycles, calculated through a modeling process specific for Medfly.

This action is effective immediately. This change to the quarantine area will be 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, Ceratitis capitata is considered to be a pest that is absent: eradicated from Santa Clara County, California in the United States.
 

Posted Date: Aug. 5, 2008, 9 a.m.