News Americas, WASHINGTON, D.C., Fri. Mar. 20, 2015: The pesky Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly) has resulted in a federal quarantine order issued on the importations of several fruit and vegetables from the Dominican Republic.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection will enforce the quarantine order issued by the United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) on March 18, 2015.
APHIS says it took this action in response to multiple detections of Medfly in the Punta Cana region of the Dominican Republic to prevent the entry or introduction of Medfly into the United States.
The APHIS Administrator has determined that the introduction and establishment of Medfly poses a serious threat to United States agriculture, including certain fruits or vegetables grown in the United States, and that this serious plant pest threat must be immediately addressed.
Medfly is not known to occur in the United States except in Hawaii. It is estimated that the species would be able to establish populations in southern regions of the United States.
The following commodities from the Dominican Republic are prohibited:
| avocado | longan | pepper |
| clementine | mamey (sapote) | pummelo |
| grape | mandarin | tangelo |
| grapefruit | mango* | tangerine |
| lemon | orange | tomato |
| litchi | papaya | tuna (cactus fruit) |
