Importation of Fresh Chufle, Calathea macrosepala K. Schum., immature inflorescences into the Continental United States from El Salvador A Pathway-initiated Pest Risk Assessment April 5, 2010 Revision 03 Agency Contact: Plant Epidemiology and Risk Analysis Laboratory Center for Plant Health Science and Technology United States Department of Agriculture Animal Plant Health Inspection Services Plant Protection and Quarantine 1730 Varsity Drive, Suite 300 Raleigh, NC 27606 Pest Risk Assessment for Chufle from El Salvador Executive Summary In this document we assessed the risk associated with the importation of fresh chufle, Calathea macrosepala K. Schum., immature inflorescences from El Salvador into the continental United States. Other than postharvest washing, drying, and sorting, we assumed no specialized phytosanitary treatments would be done. Several Lepidoptera species were found to be both quarantine species and likely to follow the pathway. We assessed these species and found that the Consequences of Introduction were negligible because the pests were unsuited for the climates in the continental United States, except in Southern Florida, and no Calathea spp. exist there. Since the lepidopteran had a Pest Risk Potential of Low, we did not list any risk mitigation options. Rev. 03 April 5, 2010 ii Pest Risk Assessment for Chufle from El Salvador Table of Contents Executive Summary...................................................................................................................... ii 1. Introduction............................................................................................................................... 1 2. Risk Assessment ........................................................................................................................ 2 2.1. Initiating Event: Proposed Action........................................................................................ 2 2.2. Assessment of Weediness Potential of Calathea macrosepala ........................................... 2 2.3. Current Import Status, Decision History, and Pest Interceptions ........................................ 3 2.4. Pest Categorization: Identification of Quarantine Pests ...................................................... 3 2.5. Pest Categorization: Quarantine Pests Likely to Follow the Pathway............................... 10 2.6. Consequences of Introduction............................................................................................ 11 2.7. Likelihood of Introduction................................................................................................. 12 3. Conclusion: Pest Risk Potentials ........................................................................................... 13 4. Authors and Reviewers........................................................................................................... 15 5. Literature Cited ...................................................................................................................... 15 6. Appendices............................................................................................................................... 20 Appendix 1. Pests and pathogens intercepted on Calathea sp. at United States ports. ............ 20 Rev. 03 April 5, 2010 iii Pest Risk Assessment for Chufle from El Salvador 1. Introduction This risk assessment was prepared by Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in response to a request by the government of El Salvador to examine potential pest risks associated with the importation of fresh immature inflorescences of chufle, Calathea macrosepala K. Schum., into the continental United States. This pest risk assessment is pathway-initiated because it is based on risks associated with the importation of the commodity. This risk assessment is qualitative: we express risk as High, Medium, and Low, rather than in probabilities or frequencies. The methodology and rating criteria are explained in Pathway-initiated Pest Risk Assessments: Guidelines for Qualitative Assessments, Version 5.02 (PPQ, 2000). Calathea macrosepala is a member of a large, perennial genus (250+ species) ,which grows throughoutLatin America. Members of the genus are distinguished by large oval leaves, 20-90 cm long, with thick ribs, which gave it the common name, “prayer plant”. Because of the attractive arrangement and size of the leaves, Calathea is used as an ornamental. Calathea macrosepala is drought tolerant, grows between sea level and 2000 m, and its distribution is limited to Central America. Its nearest relatives are C. latifolia and C. soconuscum (Kennedy, 1978). The immature inflorescence—commonly called “chufle” (Calderon and Vasquez, 2005)—is harvested for consumption in Central (San Salvador Department) and Occidental (Ahuachapan and Morazan) El Salvador. The inflorescence is between 5 and 10 cm tall (Kennedy, 1978). Chufle is harvested by hand and then washed in diluted bleach, rinsed in cold water, and packed for shipment (Esquivel, 2005). The Salvadoran government wishes to export chufle to the United States to take advantage of the expatriate and immigrant Salvadoran community in the U.S, marketing chufle especially in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Santa Ana, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, and New Orleans (Beatres-Marques et al., 2001; Hernández et al., 2003). The Salvadoran government estimates annual production of chufle at 5-10 tons, on 25-30 ha (Esquivel, 2005). In creating the required pest risk analysis to import chufle into the United States, we faced two difficulties, 1) taxonomic confusion about the identity of chufle, and 2) a lack of information about pests affecting the crop in Central America. Chufle was identified as C. allouia in a few older references (Bernal and Correa, 1994 Esquivel, 2005) and in the original request to import chufle (Medrano, 2004), but C. macrosepala is the actual chufle plant. Calathea allouia is native to Northern South America and cultivated in Brazil for its starchy rhizome (Kennedy, 2007). Its native range does not extend Northward beyond Panama and does not overlap with C. macrosepala (Kennedy, 1978, 2007), the actual chufle plant. Other references contain a mixture of information about C. allouia and C. macrosepala (Bernal and Correa, 1994) or about C. allouia alone (Noda et al., 1994). Unfortunately, this made such references difficult to use. Secondly, since it has never been cultivated on a large scale, C. macrosepala has rarely been researched. Most research on Calathea spp. is on ornamentals in greenhouse production. Moreover, the only large scale presence of Calathea spp. in the United States is in greenhouse Rev. 03 April 5, 2010 1 Pest Risk Assessment for Chufle from El Salvador production in Florida (Chase, 1982), which is agronomically very different from field cultivation in Central America (Chase, 1982, 1990; Leahy, 1991; Pappas and Paplomatas, 1998; Simone and Brunk, 1983). These difficulties suggest that a general risk assessment may be necessary because very little information exists about chufle, and some of that information is unreliable. To deal with those challenges, we chose to expand the analysis to include information for the genus Calathea in El Salvador and the neighboring countries of Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Belize, and Southern Mexico which covers part of the natural range of C. macrosepala. We expected this would also provide relevant information about other Calathea species whose pests might interact with C. macrosepala. Although no pest risk analysis can describe all conceivable risks, and expanding the geographic and taxonomic range of the analysis should improve the likelihood of characterizing relevant hazards, even if it includes a few pests with no significant association to chufle. In this document, we focused on risks associated with the immature inflorescence of C. macrosepala, and assumed that only those inflorescences will be imported. 2. Risk Assessment A Pest Risk Assessment is a component of an overall Pest Risk Analysis. The Guidelines for Pest Risk Analysis (IPPC, 1997: ISPM #2) describe three stages in pest risk analysis. This document satisfies the requirements of FAO Stages 1 (initiation) and 2 (risk assessment), by separately considering each area of inquiry, as well as PestID Guidelines version 5.02 (PPQ, 2000). We begin this Pest Risk Assessment by identifying the initiating event, conducting a weediness screening, and discussing past decisions on the commodity. We then identify and characterize the pests likely to be associated with C. macrosepala in El Salvador. Finally, we analyze in more detail the quarantine pests likely to follow the pathway with the imported commodity. In that analysis, we assess five risk elements associated with the Consequences of Introduction of pests into the United States. Likewise, we combine six sub-elements to assess the Likelihood of Introduction into the United States. Together, the Consequences of Introduction and the Likelihood of Introduction values form an evaluation of the Pest Risk Potential. 2.1. Initiating Event: Proposed Action Importation into the continental United States of fresh chufle inflorescences grown in El Salvador is a potential pathway for the introduction of plant pests as indicated in MAG letter No. 285-2004 dated 15 October 2004 (MAG, 2004). Title 7 of the Code of Federal Regulations 319, Part