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This $377,639 Cooperative Agreement awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care Federal Grant Program (CFDA 10.025) aims to enhance containment and control efforts against the Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle (CRB) on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.

The key activities include using canine teams to detect CRB presence in suspect areas, which will enable targeted treatment and mitigation. The intended outcomes are to: 1) reduce CRB populations in known transit routes off Oahu, 2) prevent infestations on non-infested Hawaiian islands through monitoring and partnerships, 3) manage populations in the most infested areas, and 4) ultimately prevent the spread of CRB to other islands, the broader Pacific region, and the continental United States. The University of Hawaii at Manoa is the sole recipient of this award, which runs from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025.

Purpose

The purpose of this award is to augment current containment and control efforts against coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB) on oahu, hawaii, which has the goals of: a. Reducing CRB populations on oahu in areas associated with transit off island as guided by a tier system, which prioritizes ports and specific commodity transporters. B. Increased monitoring on non-infested hawaiian islands by remote sensing and partnerships with other organizations and agencies, coupled with eradication response if incipient populations are detected. 2.

Activities

Canine teams will search for CRB in suspect areas/areas with host material, which can then be verified by human teams and targeted for treatment. 3. Deliverables and expected outcomes: canine team detections will help the CRB program target areas for treatment/mitigation. Use of canine teams maximizes efficiency in use of resources since the canines can search much more material than a human in the same amount of time. Outcomes include 1) reducing CRB populations in known routes of transit off oahu, 2) preventing infestation on non-infested hawaiian islands by prophylactic treatment and monitoring through partnerships with other organizations and agencies, 3) managing populations in the most infested areas to RE duce the chance of movement out of those areas, and 4) preventing the spread of CRB to other islands in the state of hawaii, the larger pacific region, and the continental US. 4. Intended beneficiary(IES): the state of hawaii, other islands in the pacific who do not have CRB, and palm-growing regions of the U.S. 5. Subrecipient activities, if known or specified at the time of award: no subawards.