Country: United States

Title: Removal of Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata) quarantine areas in portions of Los Angeles County, California, and Palm Beach County, Florida

Contact:
Wayne Burnett, APHIS Exotic Fruit Fly Director, Fruit Fly Exclusion and Detection Programs, (301) 734-4387

Report: Effective September 1, 2010, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) removed the quarantine areas for Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly) in the Santa Monica area of Los Angeles County, California, and the Boca Raton/Delray Beach area of Palm Beach County, Florida.

On November 20, 2009, APHIS designated portions of the Santa Monica area of Los Angeles County as a Medfly-quarantine area and applied restrictions on the interstate movement of regulated articles from that vicinity to prevent the spread of Medfly to noninfested areas of the United States. Since that time, APHIS worked cooperatively with the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner’s office to eradicate the transient Medfly population from the Santa Monica quarantine area through various population control actions. These actions included applying sterile insect techniques and the application of foliar spinosad bait sprays near the detection sites.

On July 7, 2010, APHIS designated portions of the Boca Raton/Delray Beach area of Palm Beach County, Florida, as a Medfly quarantine area and applied restrictions on the interstate movement of regulated articles from that vicinity to prevent the spread of Medfly to noninfested areas of the United States. Since that time, APHIS worked cooperatively with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to eradicate the transient Medfly population from the Boca Raton/Delray Beach quarantine area through various population control actions. These actions also included applying sterile insect techniques and the application of foliar spinosad bait sprays near the detection sites.

Removal of the 65-square-mile quarantine area in Los Angeles County, California, and the 83-square-mile quarantine area in Palm Beach County, Florida, was warranted after sufficient time passed without finding additional Medflies in those areas. Specifically, an intensified fruit fly trap surveillance system was deployed and monitored for three lifecycles, calculated through a modeling process specific for Medfly. Accordingly, the Medfly quarantine was lifted from the Santa Monica area in Los Angeles County, California, and the Boca Raton/Delray Beach area in Palm Beach County, Florida, on September 1, 2010. This change to the quarantine area is reflected on the APHIS Web site. To view the current list of Federal fruit fly quarantine areas, please copy and paste the following link into your Web browser:

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/fruit_flies/index.shtml  

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

Under IPPC standards, Ceratitis capitata is considered to be a pest that is absent: eradicated from portions of Los Angeles County, California, and Palm Beach County, Florida in the United States.
 

Posted Date: Sept. 10, 2010, 9 a.m.