The USDA is taking additional steps to protect California citrus against citrus greening.
Effective immediately, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, in cooperation with the California Department of Food and Agriculture said it is expanding the areas quarantined for Huanglongbing (HLB; citrus greening), caused by Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, in California. APHIS is adding portions of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties in California to the quarantined areas.
With the expansion of the Jurupa Valley and Riverside areas of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties in the HLB quarantine area, CDFA merged the HLB quarantine boundaries creating a single HLB quarantine that expands across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. In addition, APHIS is establishing a quarantine in a portion of San Diego County. APHIS is taking this action because of HLB detections in plant tissue samples collected from multiple locations during routine surveys in California.
APHIS is applying safeguarding measures on the interstate movement of regulated articles from the quarantined areas in California. These measures parallel the intrastate quarantine that CDFA established. This action is necessary to prevent the spread of HLB to non-infested areas of the United States. The specific changes to the quarantined areas in California are attached and can also be found online.
APHIS will publish a notice of this change in the Federal Register. For additional information, you may call the Director of Specialty Crops and Cotton Pests Shailaja Rabindran at (301) 851- 2167.
