1.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) was awarded a $4,099,379 Cooperative Agreement from 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). The project will utilize 13 detector dog teams to enhance pest inspection and surveillance activities related to plant products entering California through private carrier and USPS parcel shipments. CDFA will oversee the county agricultural commissioners' use of the dog teams to intercept actionable pests, while CDFA's Plant Pest Diagnostics Center will perform laboratory diagnostics and data analysis. The project aims to prevent the introduction of exotic pests and diseases, protecting California's $58.4 billion agricultural industry and the nation's food supply. Deliverables include increasing interceptions of actionable pests in unmarked agricultural commodity shipments and achieving a 90% accuracy rate for the dog teams in alerting on such parcels.

Purpose

Invasive species are a major threat to biological diversity. California is particularly vulnerable because of the diversity of its agricultural production and the volume of trade in agricultural products with other states and foreign countries. Detector DOG teams can be utilized to enhance pest inspection and surveillance activities related to plant products entering california through interceptions in parcels shipped via private carriers and the united states postal service (USPS). 2.

Activities

Oversee the county agricultural commissioners (CAC) utilization of the 13 DOG teams to intercept actionable pests at parcel centers like UPS, USPS, fedex, amazon, etc. Oversight also includes the procurement, maintenance and care of the dogs, ability to follow guidelines, and the submission of samples for identification. Cdfa's plant pest diagnostics center (PPDC) will perform laboratory diagnostics for pest identification and DNA sequencing. Data will be analyzed to determine the highest priority facilities based on the number of unmarked parcels detected by the DOG teams. Accuracy of each DOG will be reviewed each month based on the handler's daily data entry. Work will be performed with each team to achieve an accuracy rating of 90% in alerting on unmarked parcels containing agricultural materials. Training will occur for the dogs, DOG handlers, and county personnel involved. Cacs will also perform community outreach, demonstrations, workshops, and other public relations. 3. Deliverables and expected outcomes: prevention of the introduction of exotic pests and diseases, and the protection of international export markets will be measured by the number of interceptions of actionable pests in unmarked packages containing agricultural commodities, and the success of intercepting the unmarked packages. 4. Intended beneficiary(IES): california produces about 10.9% of the country's agricultural production value ($58.4 billion) and 40% of the nation's fruits, nuts, and vegetables. In reality, the risk to california is a risk to the nation's food supply. An outbreak of disease or pest infestation could cost billions of dollars in pest eradication efforts and threaten the nation's and/or state's economy, domestic food, and fiber supply. This program will ensure that plant material shipped into california is free of significant pests and plant diseases. 5. Subrecipient activities, if known or specified at the time of award: cacs and their personnel will maintain the dogs locally and utilize them for pest detection at parcel facilities, and assist DOG teams with collecting and sending suspect samples to the PPDC lab for identification and data collection (attachment C).