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14 October 2004

U.S. Continues Alert for Medfly Detection in Tijuana, Mexico

Mediterranean fruit fly deemed harmful to 250 different commodities

By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The United States will continue until further notice its emergency response to the detection in Tijuana, Mexico, of the Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly), which renders unmarketable and unusable more than 250 different types of commodities, including fruits, nuts and vegetables, says U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

A CBP spokesman said October 14 that the emergency measures to protect U.S. agricultural resources are being taken at all land-border ports in California, Arizona, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas, following detection and confirmation of the pest in Tijuana September 16.

The Mexican government said at a September 28 news conference in Tijuana that it had instituted a quarantine restricting the movement of fruit and vegetables in that city. The Mexican government said it was cooperating with its U.S. counterparts on aerial spraying and other measures to prevent the spread of the pest. CBP says the Medfly is one of the most destructive pests known. The insect causes damage by laying its eggs just beneath the skin of ripening fruit. The eggs hatch into larvae (maggots) and feed on the flesh of the fruit, rendering the fruit unfit for human consumption.

The CBP first announced the emergency-response measures September 24. The CBP said that on that date, the Plant Protection and Quarantine division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) instituted emergency measures and prohibited entry of Medfly host material originating from, packed in, and/or stored in Tijuana in order to prevent the movement of the pest to other regions.

The emergency response specifies that shipments of agricultural commodities on the Medfly host list into the United States require a phytosanitary certificate from the USDA, as well as a special declaration indicating that the cargo originated outside Mexico's Baja California area and was not packed in or shipped through that region.

In addition, CBP border patrol officers will confiscate any produce found on individuals who are detained at border checkpoints in San Diego and other locations. The produce will be placed in special bins and transported to the nearest port of entry several times a week for examination by CBP agriculture specialists.

CBP says that because the Medfly is so potentially injurious to crops, year-round trapping is maintained as an early warning system in Florida, Texas, Arizona and California, as well as in northern Mexico and Baja California. The secret to eradicating the pest is early detection, CBP says. The trapping system consists of thousands of insect traps, baited with a food lure, and monitored biweekly. When the Medfly is detected, U.S. agriculture officials immediately institute a plan for eradication and impose regulatory restrictions to prevent the movement of the pest via infested fruit, CBP said.

In a separate event involving food safety, the USDA and officials from throughout the Western Hemisphere inaugurated October 13 in Miami a new institute aimed at developing and promoting effective food-safety education and training programs throughout the Americas.

USDA Deputy Secretary Jim Moseley said in remarks at the inauguration that the new Food Safety Institute of the Americas is the first of its kind and seeks to provide a "cooperative, educational-oriented relationship with the nations in the Western Hemisphere." The institute, Moseley said, will address food safety and public health concerns by "establishing and enhancing important networks among regulatory officials, researchers, public health officials, consumers, meat, poultry and egg processors and producers, as well as animal producers."

Elsa Murano, USDA under secretary for food safety, said the establishment of the institute is designed to spur the exchange of information and technology among countries around the world -- a subject that was the centerpiece of ministerial-level meetings on science and technology held in Sacramento, California, in June 2003, and follow-up meetings in Costa Rica in May 2004, and in Burkino Faso in June 2004.

The USDA says it works with governments in the Western Hemisphere to enhance their food-safety activities. As an example of its cooperative activities, the USDA's Murano signed a memorandum of understanding in June with the Pan American Health Organization to improve the safety of meat and poultry products that are traded among the nations of the Western Hemisphere.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)