We invite you to comment on this docket. We will consider all comments that we receive by August 16, 1999. Please state that your comment refers to Docket No. You may read any comments that we receive on this docket in our reading room. The short life cycle of the Oriental fruit fly allows rapid development of serious outbreaks, which can cause severe economic losses.
Heavy infestations can cause complete loss of crops.
The regulations impose restrictions on the interstate movement of regulated articles from the quarantined areas. Quarantined areas are listed in Sec. Less than an entire State will be designated as a quarantined area only if the Administrator determines that the State has adopted and is enforcing restrictions on the intrastate movement of the regulated articles that are substantially the same as those imposed on the interstate movement of regulated articles, and the designation of less than the entire State as a quarantined area will prevent the interstate spread of the Oriental fruit fly. The Oriental fruit fly is not known to exist anywhere else in the continental United States. State agencies in Florida have begun an intensive Oriental fruit fly eradication program in the quarantined area in Hillsborough County.