United States Department of Agriculture and Plant Health Inspection Service Plant Protection and Quarantine

Risk Management Document

Importation of Fresh Fruit of ( muricata L.) from Mexico into the Continental United States

May 3, 2018

Plant Health Programs (PHP) Regulatory Coordination and Compliance (RCC)

Introduction

In response to a request for market access to import fresh fruit of soursop, Annona muricata L. from Mexico into the continental United States, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) prepared a pest list based on information from Mexico, scientific literature and pest interception data. The importation of fruits and vegetables into the United States is regulated by 7 CFR §319.56. Currently, the entry of fresh Soursop, Annona muricata L. fruit from Mexico is not authorized.

The pest list, Quarantine Pests of Soursop (Annona muricata), occurring in Mexico (USDA, 2016), found 19 quarantine pests of soursop in Mexico. Of the 19 quarantine pests, 11 are associated with fruit. One pest, Parlatoria cinerea, is a hard scale in the family Diaspididae. Diaspididae intercepted on tree fruit are not actionable under APHIS policy since they have negligible risk of establishment. The rest of the pest list includes three fruit flies (Tephritidae) and one fly in the Family Lonchaeidae that may follow the path way of soursop fruit from Mexico. There are also three , one Hymenoptera, one Cucurlionidae (Coleoptera) and one Pseudococcidae that may follow the pathway of soursop fruit from Mexico.

Pests that may follow the pathway of soursop fruit from Mexico that require mitigation:

Coleoptera: Cucurlionidae Opatus palmaris Pascoe

Diptera: Lonchaeidae Neosilba glaberrima (Wiedemann)

Diptera: Tephritidae Anastrepha fraterculus (Wiedemann) South American fruit fly Anastrepha striata Schiner guava fruit fly Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly)

Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae Nipaecoccus viridis (Newstead)

Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae Bephratelloides pomorum (Fabricius)

Lepidoptera: ortygnus (Cramer)

Lepidoptera: anonella (Sepp)

Lepidoptera: Tortricidae Talponia batesi Heinrich

Parlatoria cinerea (Diaspididae) is listed in pest list as following the pathway of soursop fruit (USDA, 2016), but by policy are non-actionable if intercepted on tree fruit at United States ports

of entry based on low likelihood of establishment via the pathway of fresh fruit (USDA, 2007). For this reason, we are not requiring a mitigation measure for these .

Pest risk management is the process of identifying ways to react to a perceived risk, evaluating the efficacy of these actions, and identifying the most appropriate options (IPPC, 2004). This document outlines phytosanitary measures and provides evidence of their efficacy in preventing the introduction of quarantine pests. The appropriate level of protection may be achieved through the application of a single phytosanitary measure, such as establishment of pest-free places of production or a quarantine treatment, or a combination of measures in a systems approach (IPPC, 2002).

Risk Management Measures

Fresh soursop (Annona muricata) fruits may be imported into the continental United States from Mexico only under the following conditions:

1. Soursop fruit must be commercially produced and be part of a commercial consignment as defined in 7 CFR Section 319.56-2.

2. Soursop fruit must be irradiated with a minimum absorbed dose of 400 Gy and follow the requirements of 7 CFR part 305.

3. Each consignment of fruit must be inspected by the NPPO of Mexico prior to export and accompanied by a Phytosanitary Certificate (PC) issued by the NPPO of Mexico stating that the consignment was inspected and found free of quarantine pests.

4. Each consignment of soursop fruit is subject to inspection upon arrival at port of entry to the United States.

Efficacy of Risk Management Measures

Requiring that fresh soursop fruits be imported from Mexico only as commercial consignments ensures that standard commercial practices will remove most pests from the pathway. Commercially produced fruits are grown and packed to meet quality levels that allow them to be marketed for sale. Visible pest infestations / plant disease infections are routinely culled during harvest and packing. This will remove mealybugs such as Nipaecoccus viridis from the pathway of soursop fruit. In addition internally feeding pests such as the Lepidoptera , Talponia batesi and (Castañeda-Vildózola et al., 2011; Castañeda- Vildózola et al., 2013; Demolin-Leite, 2012) cause visible damage to the fruit that would be culled as unmarketable, as well as being easily found on inspection. Standard commercial practices often include cultural, chemical, or mechanical means (e.g., field sanitation, pre-harvest application of pesticides, resistant cultivars) to eliminate pests from fields or prevent pest infestation / infection. Pesticide applications and sanitation, such as removing and discarding infested / infected or damaged produce, are essential components of good agricultural practices, and are mainstays of commercial production (Kirk et al., 2001). Commercially produced fruit is

less likely than other fruit to have pests or other phytosanitary issues. Interceptions of pests in commercial fruit versus passenger baggage fruit show that passenger baggage fruit, which is often non-commercially produced, have a much higher risk of carrying pests (AQAS, 2017).

Irradiation treatment (Schedule T105-a-2) at 400 Gy is approved by APHIS for treating fruit infested with all species of insects except pupae and larvae of Lepidoptera (USDA, 2017). A minimum absorbed dose of 400 Gy has been determined by APHIS (7 CFR 305.9) to be adequate to neutralize all insects except pupae and adults in the order Lepidoptera. Irradiation will be used to neutralize larvae of the five Tephritidae fruit flies, the two Lonchaeidae flies and the Cucurlionidae (Coleoptera) Opatus palmaris that may be present in soursop fruit. Irradiation has been used successfully to mitigate pest risk for different types of fruits imported from many countries.

Mexican soursop fruit will be subject to inspection by the NPPO of Mexico and also inspection by the United States Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the U.S. ports of entry. The phytosanitary certificate requires the National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) of Mexico to conduct an inspection and certify that the soursop fruits are free of quarantine pests. Many pests have developmental stages or cause visible damage that can be detected during a visual inspection of the fruit (Borror et al., 1989). It is expected that inspection would detect any stages of the three Lepidoptera pests in soursop (Castañeda- Vildózola et al., 2011; Castañeda-Vildózola et al., 2013; Demolin-Leite, 2012). Inspection will detect mealybugs such as Nipaecoccus viridis. Inspection is effective in detecting various stages of any pest that are present, particularly those pests that are larger during their later life stages (Borror et al., 1989). Regular inspections are recognized as part of a balanced pest management program (Kahn & Mathur, 1999). CBP agricultural inspectors receive specific instructions for detecting quarantine pests during inspection of consignments upon arrival to the United States. These inspectors are trained and instructed to inspect for insects, mites, /mite damage, and disease blemishes. Infested or infected fruit will be rejected, and trace back can be accomplished by APHIS and the NPPO of Mexico to identify and correct problems which may include removal of the packinghouse or place of production from the export program.

Summary

Ten quarantine pests were identified by the pest list as potentially following the pathway of fresh soursop from Mexico. The systems approach listed above which includes: irradiation treatment; commercial consignments; pre-export and port of entry inspections, will mitigate the risks from all the quarantine pests listed above. APHIS believes that the phytosanitary measures proposed in this document will result in the effective removal of any potential quarantine pests associated with the importation of fresh soursop fruit from Mexico into the continental United States.

Authors

Walter Gould, Senior Risk Manager

APHIS-PPQ

Contact Person

Marc Phillips, Senior Regulatory Policy Specialist APHIS-PPQ

References

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Borror, D. J., C. A. Triplehorn and N. F. Johnson. 1989. Introduction to the study of insects, 6th edition. Saunders College Publishers, Philadelphia, PA. 800 pp.

Castañeda-Vildózola, A., C. Nava-Díez, M. Duarte, O. Franco-Mora, and L.M. Hernándes- Fuentes. 2011. New Host Plant Records for Oenomaus ortygnus (Cramer) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) in Mexico. Neotropical Entomology. 40(4): 512-514.

Castañeda-Vildózola, A., O. Franco-Mora, J. Valdez-Carrasco, S. Aguilar-Medel, S. Ortiz-Curie and C. Ruiz-Montiel. 2013. New Records of Cherimola Fruit Borer Talponia batesi Heinrich (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in Mexico. Southwestern Entomologist. 38(3): 535-540.

Demolin-Leite, G.L., M. Ferreira-Souza, P.N. Silva-Souza, M.M. Fonseca and J. Cola-Zanuncio. 2012. The bagging of Annona crassiflora fruits to control fruit borers. Acta Scientiarum. Agronomy 34(3): 253-257.

IPPC. 2002. The use of integrated measures in a systems approach for pest risk management. International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures No. 14. Rome: Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

IPPC. 2004. Pest risk analysis for quarantine pests including analysis of environmental risks and living modified organisms. International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures No. 11. Rome: Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Kahn, R.P. and S.B. Mathur. 1999. Containment facilities and safeguards for exotic plant pathogens and pests. APS Press, St. Paul MN. 213 pp.

Kirk, K., R. Bessin, J. Hartman, J. O’Leary, and J. Strang. 2001. Total quality assurance: apple production: best management practices. Kentucky Coop. Ext. Serv. ID-137.

USDA. 2007. Phytosanitary Risks Associated with Armored Scales Science Panel Meeting Notes. May 8-9, 2007. USDA, APHIS, CPHST, PERAL, Raleigh, NC. 23 pp.

USDA. 2016. Quarantine Pests of Soursop (Annona muricata) Occurring in Mexico USDA, APHIS, CPHST, PERAL, Raleigh, NC. 14 pp.

USDA, 2017. USDA Treatment manual. http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/manuals/ports/downloads/treatment.pdf Last accessed February 2017.