Earlier this month, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) expanded its list of areas quarantined for the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) to various counties across the state – including portions of the Central Valley – to align with protocols that the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has had in place since 2018.
APHIS published the quarantine expansion on Nov. 6 to include all of Fresno, Tulare, Kern and San Luis Obispo counties, in addition to 18 other counties in California. The federal ACP quarantine areas are now aligned with the existing state-level quarantine expansions that the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has established. While this quarantine update expanded the federal quarantine areas, it did not affect CDFA’s existing quarantine areas or the regulatory requirements for any citrus industry members in California.
The ACP quarantine is intended to stop the spread of the pest, and ultimately Huanglongbing (HLB), from reaching areas that currently do not have established populations in their area. A full list of the zone guidelines and the risks each county faces are available on the CDFA website.
If you have questions for APHIS, please contact APHIS’ Acting Advisor for State and Stakeholder Relations Byron L. Williams at Byron.Williams@usda.gov.