APHIS updates the Citrus Black Spot (Phyllosticta citricarpa) Quarantine Area in Florida

FOR INFORMATION AND ACTION
DA-2022-31
August 29, 2022

To: State and Territory Agricultural Regulatory Officials
 

Effective immediately, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), in cooperation with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Division of Plant Industry (FDACS DPI), is adding four sections in Collier County and five sections in Glades County to the citrus black spot (CBS) quarantine area in Florida. APHIS is taking this action because of confirmed detections of P. citricarpa (formerly known as Guignardia citricarpa), the causal agent of CBS, during annual surveys conducted during the 2021 growing season by APHIS and FDACS DPI. APHIS is applying safeguarding measures and restrictions on the interstate movement, or entry into foreign trade, of regulated articles from the quarantine area as outlined in Federal Order DA-2012-09.

In 2010, CBS was first identified in the Collier and Hendry Counties of Florida. The disease is currently confined to portions of six counties in Southwest Florida. Fresh citrus fruit moved interstate from the CBS quarantine areas must be processed using APHIS-approved methods and packed in commercial citrus packing houses operating under a compliance agreement with APHIS. APHIS prohibits the movement of any other citrus plant parts outside the quarantine area. 

As established in Federal Order DA-2012-09, APHIS will publish a description of this CBS quarantine area expansion on the website listed below. This website contains a description of all the current CBS quarantine areas, Federal Orders, and APHIS-approved packinghouse procedures: 

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/planthealth/blackspot 

For additional information regarding the CBS program, you may contact Shailaja Rabindran, Director of Specialty Crops and Cotton Pests, (301) 851-2167.

/s/ 

Dr. Mark L Davidson
Deputy Administrator
Plant Protection and Quarantine