A citrus greening quarantine area in California has expanded, but the increased area doesn’t include commercial citrus groves.
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, in cooperation with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, said it increased the areas quarantined for Huanglongbing, also known a HLB or citrus greening, according to a news release.
The quarantined area is expanded in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside counties by approximately 50 square miles, the release said.
Additionally, APHIS is expanding the quarantined area in Ventura County by approximately 0.7 square miles. USDA said APHIS is taking this action because of citrus greening detections in plant tissue samples collected from residential properties in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and Ventura counties. There is no commercial citrus impacted by the change, the release said.
APHIS is applying safeguarding measures on the interstate movement of regulated articles from the quarantined areas in California. These measures parallel the intrastate quarantines that California Department of Food and Agriculture established Aug. 1, Aug.5 and Aug. 22 this year.
