This project aims to develop a point of origin tool that will allow animal plant health inspection services (aphis) to identify potential sources of the oriental fruit fly (off), bactrocera…

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) awarded $210,739 to the University of Hawaii in a Cooperative Agreement on September 30, 2026, under the Fruit Fly Exclusion and Detection Program to develop a point-of-origin tool for identifying the source of Oriental fruit fly captures within the continental United States.

The recipient will create a molecular-marker-based tool to determine the geographic origin of Bactrocera dorsalis specimens captured by APHIS monitoring in California and Florida. Current genetic approaches using COI haplotypes and mitochondrial genome markers have produced mixed results and insufficient resolution; this project will advance methodology beyond those limitations. When capture origin can be established, APHIS will direct mitigation resources toward identified pathways and source regions, improving incursion prevention. Work is performed in Hawaii with a period of performance from September 30, 2026 through September 29, 2027.

This project aims to develop a point of origin tool that will allow animal plant health inspection services (aphis) to identify potential sources of the oriental fruit fly (off), bactrocera dorsalis, captured by the fruit fly exclusion and detection (ffed) program within the continental united states. Every year, multiple off incursions are detected in california and florida. However, the origin of these captured flies cannot often be determined. If the origin of a captured off is known, aphis can devote more resources to identifying the potential pathway and mitigating future incursions from the source. Previous efforts to develop a population genetic origin tool for off using different molecular markers have had limited success. COI haplotypes are used to identify the potential point of origin of off but have mixed results. Additional markers found in the mitochondrial genome also did not provide the necessary resolution.