APHIS Expands the Sweet Orange Scab Quarantined Area in California

FOR INFORMATION AND ACTION 
DA-2025-49 
November 25, 2025 

Subject: APHIS Expands the Sweet Orange Scab Quarantined Area in California 

To: State, Tribal, and Territory Agricultural Regulatory Officials 

Effective immediately, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), in cooperation with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), is expanding the areas quarantined for sweet orange scab (SOS) in the Tustin area of Orange County in California. SOS is a disease caused by the fungus Elsinöe australis. APHIS is expanding this quarantined area by five square miles. APHIS is taking this action because of an SOS detection in a plant tissue sample collected from a residential property in Orange County. This expansion does not impact commercial citrus. 

APHIS is applying safeguarding measures outlined in Federal Order DA-2024-34 pertaining to the interstate movement of regulated articles from the quarantined areas in California. This measure parallels the intrastate quarantine that CDFA established on November 14, 2025. This action is necessary to prevent the spread of SOS to non-infested areas of the United States. 

The APHIS Sweet Orange Scab website has information on this disease, Federal Orders, APHIS-approved packinghouse procedures, and a description of current Federal SOS quarantined areas. 

For additional information you may contact:

Abby R. Stilwell 
Agriculturist 
(919) 323 -6296 
abby.r.stilwell@usda.gov

/s/

Matthew A. Rhoads 
Acting Deputy Administrator 
Plant Protection and Quarantine