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

FOR INFORMATION AND ACTION
DA-2024-32
August 14, 2024

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

To:  State, Territory, and Tribal Agricultural Regulatory Officials

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.

For additional information regarding the OFF quarantine area, please contact:

Richard Johnson
National Policy Manager
301-851-2109
richard.n.johnson@usda.gov

Avraham Eitam
Assistant National Policy Manager
614-205-4565
avraham.eitam@usda.gov

/s/

Dr. Mark L Davidson
Deputy Administrator
Plant Protection and Quarantine