LBAM Quarantine Bars Stone Fruit Shipment
September 10, 2009 A California stone fruit grower/shipper has become the first to be largely impacted by a federal quarantine to prevent the spread of the light brown apple moth (LBAM). On Wednesday, the quarantine was extended to include several additional California counties, including Los Angeles County. There is a small amount of fruit grown in the northeast corner of LA County, in the Lancaster area.
Last month, an LBAM detection was made in the Long Beach area, which while 90 miles away, is also in LA County, said the California Grape & Tree Fruit League’s director of trade, Marcy Martin. But federal quarantines, unlike state quarantines, which take into account where the detection was made, simply follow county borders. Because of that, stone fruit grown in the Lancaster area cannot be shipped to Mexico for the time being, said Martin. League officials were working Thursday on an agreement for an acceptable means of treatment to allow shipments to Mexico, which is the #2 stone fruit export market, she said.
In August, a total of 16 adult moths were discovered in the Long Beach area. Additionally, five adult moths were discovered in the Los Osos area of San Luis Obispo County. Besides LA County and San Luis Obispo County, the federal quarantine was extended this week to San Joaquin County, as well as San Benito and Yolo counties.
Approximately 3,473 square miles are now under quarantine within California and more than 110,000 moths have been trapped. State and federal quarantine regulations prohibit the movement of all nursery stock, all cut flowers, and all host fruits and vegetables and plant parts within or from the quarantined area unless it is certified as free from the pest by an agricultural official; is purchased at a retail outlet; or was produced outside the area and is passing through in accordance with accepted safeguards.
The LBAM is native to Australia and is found in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Hawaii. The range of host plants is broad with more than two-thousand plant species known to be susceptible to attack by this pest, and more than 250 crops. It threatens California’s environment by destroying, stunting or deforming young seedlings and damaging new growth in the forest canopy.
The moth also feeds on host plants and damages or spoils the appearance of ornamental plants, citrus, grapes, and deciduous fruit tree crops. State and federal agriculture officials are currently developing sterile insect technology to combat the infestation. For more information on the Light Brown Apple Moth, visit www.cdfa.ca.gov/lbam
The draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Light Brown Apple Moth Program is under public review until Sept. 30. Issues raised from comment letters and during the comment sessions held last month will be incorporated into a final report and then made available to the public in the form of a final EIR. More information, including the draft EIR report, can be found here.
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