The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry have established a federal quarantine area for Huanglongbing, also known as HLB or citrus greening.
The quarantine is for Saint Charles Parish in Louisiana due to HLB detections in plant tissue samples collected in multiple locations during routine surveys and to prevent the spread of HLB to non-infested parts of the U.S., according to a news release.
LDAF first found citrus greening in the state in 2008.
APHIS and LDAF said the move expands the federal quarantine area in the state but does not affect Louisiana’s state-level quarantine areas or regulatory requirements. LDAF established an intrastate quarantine on April 20, 2022, and this latest announcement makes the federal and state HLB quarantine areas in Louisiana parallel, according to the release.
The quarantine includes safeguard measures on the interstate movement of regulated articles from the quarantined areas in Saint Charles Parish, La.
Related: $11M grant aims to develop scions and rootstocks to fight HLB
