Officials Tour Successful Invasive Pest Programs Working to Protect California Agriculture
The 2023 invasive fruit fly outbreak in California was considered the worst of its kind in the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA) 100-year history.
Despite this unprecedented level of infestations, earlier this week CDFA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in collaboration with County Agricultural Commissioners announced that, after a year of hard work, all populations of invasive fruit flies from California have been eradicated.
One day after the announcement, the California Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers Association (CACASA) hosted a tour for government officials of two programs proven to be critically important to the success of preventing and eradicating invasive pests in California.
“California operates an incredibly effective program utilizing dog teams that are able to detect plant material in packages that may contain a variety of incoming pests,” said Jose Arriaga, Orange County Agricultural Commissioner. “These dog teams are key to helping us identify packages containing plant material and potential hitchhiking pests that come into California from around the world, allowing us to deter pests from infesting our local agricultural industry, the natural environment and our gardens.”
As part of the CACASA tour, CDFA officials and Congressional staff members visited the FedEx facility in Fullerton to observe the Orange County Agricultural Detector Dog Team in action inspecting hundreds of incoming packages.
“What is most impressive with the canine teams, is that they can clear up to 8000 parcels a day in facilities like Fed Ex, making them fast and thorough,” says Victoria Hornbaker, CDFA Director of Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services. “The Canine Detection teams are vitally important to the pest prevention system. If invasive pests become established, it could cause irreparable damage to California’s bountiful agricultural and our natural environment. I will add that Bear, in addition to being a hard worker, is a really handsome brown Labrador.”
Tour attendees also visited the Medfly Preventive Release Program Facility in Los Alamitos. This program is a joint project of USDA and CDFA with the objective to prevent establishment of Medfly colonies in California using a scientific process known as sterile insect technique or SIT.
“SIT is a biological-based breeding interruption method involving the release of large numbers of sterile male Medflies to reduce the reproductive potential of wild populations,” says Kurt Floren, Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner. “By flooding the environment with sterile male flies, fertile female Medflies will most likely attempt breeding with one of these sterile flies, resulting in no offspring and elimination of the population through attrition.”
Floren also notes that prior to the establishment of the facility and the SIT practices, California employed a reactive approach to Medfly finds often using controversial aerial applications of pesticides.
“This sterile insect technique approach has been extremely effective at eradicating Medfly populations with no negative impacts to the environment,” says Floren.
The Medfly Preventive Release Program in the Los Angeles Basin currently encompasses 1,750 square miles and includes portions of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. When infestations occur, the strategic location of the facility in Los Alamitos allows for a swift response anywhere in California.
Attending the CACASA tour were CDFA Undersecretary Christine Birdsong; Victoria Hornbaker, CDFA Director of Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services; David Pegos, CDFA Special Assistant/Executive Director of the Invasive Species Council of California; and Helene Wright, USDA APHIS State Plant Health Director along with Alexa Fox, Senior Legislative Assistant to Representative Jim Costa (D-CA 21st District) and other Capitol Hill staff from the offices of Congressional Representatives J. Luis Correia (D-CA 46th District) and Michelle Steel (R-CA 45th District). Leading the tour were representatives from Orange and Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner offices and Tim Cansler of Cansler Consulting.