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Saint Charles Parish in Louisiana is now under a federal quarantine for huanglongbing (HLB; citrus greening), a move initiated by federal and state agriculture authorities. This action, announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) in cooperation with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF), is in response to the detection of HLB in multiple plant tissue samples across the region.

With this development, six parishes in Louisiana are now subject to HLB quarantine. This disease, caused by Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, poses a significant threat to citrus crops. The establishment of the federal quarantine in Saint Charles Parish aligns with the state-level quarantine LDAF set on April 20, 2022, ensuring consistency in disease management efforts across federal and state jurisdictions.

USDA APHIS is implementing strict safeguards on the movement of regulated articles from Saint Charles Parish to other states. These measures are intended to mirror the intrastate quarantine restrictions and are vital to preventing HLB’s spread to uninfected areas in the U.S.

This latest quarantine expansion is detailed on the APHIS citrus greening webpage, which provides comprehensive information on all federal HLB quarantine areas. An official notice regarding this expansion will also be published in the Federal Register.

For further details, stakeholders and interested parties can contact Shailaja Rabindran, the APHIS director of specialty crops and cotton pests, at 301-851-2167 or via email at Shailaja.Rabindran@usda.gov. Additionally, the LDAF website offers insights into the history and management of HLB in Louisiana.