The mission of wsda is to keep agriculture viable and vital in washington state while protecting consumers, public health, and the environment

This Cooperative Agreement award, funded 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 program (CFDA 10.025), supports the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) in conducting critical pest detection and management activities for the state's stone fruit industry.

The $150,000 award, running from May 1, 2025 to April 30, 2026, enables WSDA to execute trapping and visual survey strategies to detect the presence of five high-priority insect pests, as well as monitor for three Candidatus phytoplasma species affecting stone fruit. This proactive surveillance will provide the stone fruit industry and producers with early detection data to initiate response plans and facilitate safe exports, while also enabling prompt eradication or mitigation efforts by USDA-APHIS, WSDA, and university collaborators if any exotic or invasive pests are found.

Activities

Trapping and visual survey strategies, as outlined by the national caps committee, will specifically capture, or detect the five insect pests (adoxophyes orana, GRAPHOLITA funebrana, lobesia botrana, rhagoletis cerasi and thaumatotibia leucotreta) listed as priority pests in 2025. Ideally, the goal of this survey is to provide negative data indicating the absence of these organisms in WA state stone fruit orchards. In addition to these priority insects, the washington state stone fruit industry has requested that aspila (GRAPHOLITA) molesta be added to wsda's list of target pests of concern. Additionally, wsda will survey commercial orchards for visual symptoms/signs of three candidatus phytoplasmas listed by the national caps committee as priority pests in stone fruit for 2025. Deliverables and expected outcomes: the cooperator seeks to conduct a program which is expected to result in: • providing the stone fruit industry and producers with survey data to facilitate domestic and international fruit and plant tissue exports and propose quarantine measures if necessary to contain the spread of any exotic pests. • providing the stone fruit industry and producers with any positive pest detections (early detection) to initiate response plans to mitigate pest impacts on crop production, crop producers, and on trade barriers. • early detection of any exotic and invasive pest organisms will allow USDA-aphis-PPQ, wsda and university collaborators the better opportunity to eradicate, mitigate, and effectively respond to introductions to washington state, the pacific northwest and north america. In 2025, wsda will focus/survey at least six WA counties in eastern washington that have the most stone fruit orchards based on fruit productivity. Locations selected will target orchards that are in areas with known or suspected pathways of introduction such as nurseries and box stores that lead into the heart of stone fruit production in washington. Residential backyard stone fruit trees adjacent to commercial operations may be included in the survey. The insect species (6) will be surveyed with traps and lures as outlined by the caps approved methods for pest surveillance. Traps will be monitored every TW O to three weeks during the trapping season from june 01 through september 30, 2025. Intended beneficiary(IES): farmers, shippers, orchardists, exporters of stone fruit subrecipient activities, if known or specified at the time of award: N/a