On May 16, 2024, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) removed the Oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis; OFF) quarantine in Santa Clara County, California, after three OFF life cycles elapsed with no additional detections in this area.

This action releases the 112 square miles of the Santa Clara County quarantine, which contained 27 acres of commercial agriculture.

On September 1, 2023, APHIS and CDFA established an OFF quarantine in Santa Clara County following the confirmed detections of five adult males and one unmated adult female OFF from various sites in Santa Clara and neighboring Sunnyvale between July 24 to August 24, 2023.

On August 25, CDFA confirmed one additional male in Sunnyvale and one additional unmated female OFF in Santa Clara. APHIS restricted the interstate movement of regulated articles from this area to prevent the spread of OFF to non-infested areas of the United States and has worked cooperatively with CDFA and the Santa Clara County Agricultural Commissioner to eradicate this transient OFF population through various control actions per program protocols. The quarantine release date was based on a degree-day model from the date of the last detection.

The removal of this quarantine area is reflected on the APHIS exotic fruit flies website, which contains a description of all current federal fruit fly quarantine areas. APHIS will publish a notice of this change in the Federal Register.

Related article: Conditions for interstate movement of fresh citrus from oriental fruit fly quarantine area modified