The stone fruit commodity survey is a pro-active approach to enable cdfa to detect priority diseases and insect pests of stone fruits before they become established and spread into agricultural…

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) received a $649,000 Cooperative Agreement from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care Federal Grant Program (CFDA 10.025) effective July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026. The award funds a Stone Fruit Commodity Survey designed to detect priority diseases and insect pests in California stone fruits before establishment in agricultural production areas. The survey targets five key threats: Plum Pox Potyvirus (PPV), False Codling Moth (FCM), European Cherry Fruit Fly (ECFF), Summer Fruit Tortrix Moth (SFT), and European Stone Fruit Yellows (ESFY). The deliverables include visual surveys and sample collection conducted across three to five counties, encompassing 6,000 PPV samples, 120 ESFY survey sites, 300 ECFF trapping sites, and 900 sites for SFT and FCM trapping, with activities spanning March through September.

CDFA will execute survey activities including site identification in orchards, production nurseries, and residential areas based on USDA risk-based models; seasonal personnel hiring and training; preliminary field identification of suspect samples; and formal submission of samples to the Plant Pest Diagnostic Center (PPDC) for examination. The survey generates surveillance data to support state and federal regulatory validity while producing mitigation measures to prevent establishment of detected pest populations and facilitating trade and export promotion.

Activities

Identify survey sites where preferred hosts are present, including orchards, production nurseries and residential areas, based on the risk-based model provided by the USDA. Some of the time will be spent hiring seasonal personnel, and providing training for survey activities, preliminary field identification of suspect samples, followed by proper submission to the plant pest diagnostic center (PPDC) for examination and identification. Visual surveys for esfy and sample collection for PPV will be conducted from march through june. Ecff, FCM and SFT trapping will take place from july through september. A total of 900 sites will be surveyed for SFT and FCM, 300 for ecff, 120 for esfy, and 6,000 samples will be taken for PPV - all spanning between three and five counties depending. Deliverables and expected outcomes: a tabulation of the number of sites trapped and sampled and the number of samples submitted can be used to determine if the survey efforts were sufficient to meet the project needs. Targeting the survey on the selected areas that have the greatest risk for introduction should allow for a reasonable expectation for the detection of the pests. Therefore, this survey should find evidence of the pests if they are being introduced. Negative survey results would indicate that the targeted pests have not been introduced and have not become established in california, thereby showing areas freedom from these pests. If one or more infestations are found early enough, this survey will also allow for an appropriate mitigative response. Intended beneficiary(IES): annual cash receipts of prunus species produced in california are approximately $1.1 billion and are grown over 106,000 acres. Exports account for almost half of the market value of stone fruit, $473 million of $1.1 billion, so special concern should be taken to maintain trade. By reducing yield and marketability, these pests could cause devastating losses to the agricultural stone fruit industry and to urban landscapes if IT were to become established in california. Subrecipient activities, if known or specified at the time of award: staff from the county agricultural commissioners' offices will assist in this survey (see attachment C).