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.

Bactrocera dorsalis (Oriental Fruit Fly): APHIS Removes Quarantine in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, California

Country: United States

Title:

Bactrocera dorsalis (Oriental Fruit Fly): APHIS Removes Quarantine in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, California

Contact:
Richard Johnson, Fruit Fly National Policy Manager, at (301) 851-2109 or richard.n.johnson@usda.gov and Avraham Eitam, Assistant National Policy Manager, at (614) 205-4565 or avraham.eitam@usda.gov

Report:

On August 11, 2024, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) removed the Oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis; OFF) quarantine in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. This action releases the remaining 365 square miles of the quarantine, which contained 1,800 acres of commercial agriculture. Release from quarantine occurred after three generations elapsed since the date of the last detection, based on a degree-day model.

APHIS and CDFA established the quarantine on September 27, 2023, following detections of 118 adult OFF and 45 OFF larvae in and around the city of Redlands in San Bernardino County between September 18 and 27, and expanded the quarantine on October 3 and 12, November 3, 9, 17, and 28, and December 5 and 22, following detections of additional flies in various locations in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. A portion of the quarantine in Riverside County was released on July 5, 2024, after three generations elapsed with no additional detections in that area.

APHIS restricted the interstate movement of regulated articles from this area to prevent the spread of OFF to non-infested areas of the United States. APHIS has worked cooperatively with CDFA and the Riverside and San Bernardino County Agricultural Commissioners to eradicate this transient OFF population through various control actions per program protocols.

The removal of this quarantine area is reflected on the APHIS Exotic Fruit Flies website, which contains a description of all current Federal fruit fly quarantine areas. APHIS will publish a notice of this change in the Federal Register.

Under IPPC standards, Bactrocera dorsalis is considered to be a pest that is absent and eradicated from the United States.

Posted Date: Aug. 20, 2024, 9:30 a.m.