Effectively immediately, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), in cooperation with the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) and the Texas citrus industry, is expanding the quarantine area for citrus greening (CG or huanglongbing) to include all of Fort Bend and Montgomery Counties. APHIS is taking this action because of positive CG detections in plant tissue samples collected from citrus nurseries in these counties. These samples were collected during surveys conducted as part of the cooperative Citrus Health Response Program. With the current additions, the five counties fully quarantined for CG in Texas are Cameron, Fort Bend, Harris, Hidalgo, and Montgomery.

APHIS is applying safeguarding measures on the interstate movement of regulated articles from Fort Bend and Montgomery Counties. These measures parallel the intrastate quarantine TDA imposed on September 10, 2014. This action is necessary to prevent the spread of CG to non-infested areas of the United States. Since 2009, APHIS has regulated all of Texas for the Asian citrus psyllid, the insect that transmits CG.

The specific changes to the regulated areas in Texas 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.