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.

APHIS Expands the Citrus Greening (Huanglongbing) Quarantine Area in Texas

Country: United States

Title:

APHIS Expands the Citrus Greening (Huanglongbing) Quarantine Area in Texas

Contact:
Abby R. Stilwell, National Policy Manager, at (919) 323-6296 or abby.r.stilwell@usda.gov and Daniel Murphy, Assistant National Policy Manager, at (775) 221-9237 or daniel.m.murphy@usda.gov.

Report:

Effective immediately, the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), in cooperation with the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA), is expanding the areas quarantined for citrus greening (Huanglongbing; HLB), caused by Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, in Texas. APHIS is adding all of Zapata County in Texas to the quarantined areas.

APHIS is taking this action because of citrus greening detections in plant tissue samples collected from a residential property in Zapata County, Texas. There is no commercial citrus impacted by this expansion. 

APHIS is applying safeguarding measures on the interstate movement of regulated articles from the quarantined areas in Texas. These measures parallel the intrastate quarantine that TDA established. This action is necessary to prevent the spread of citrus greening to noninfested areas of the United States. 

The specific changes to the quarantined areas in Texas can be found on the APHIS Citrus Greening website. APHIS will publish a notice of this change in the Federal Register. 

Under IPPC Standards, 'Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus' the agent that causes citrus greening is a pest that is present: not widely distributed and under official control  in the United States.

Posted Date: May 17, 2024, 3:41 p.m.