APHIS Declares Eradication of the Giant African Snail (Lissachatina fulica, formally Achatina fulica) and Removes All Quarantine Areas in Florida

FOR INFORMATION AND ACTION
DA-2021-37
December 22, 2021

  

Subject:           APHIS Declares Eradication of the Giant African Snail (Lissachatina fulica, formally Achatina fulica) and Removes All Quarantine Areas in Florida 

To:                  State and Territory Agricultural Regulatory Officials

Effective September 30, 2021, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) declared eradication of the giant African snail (GAS) in Florida and removed all quarantine areas for GAS. APHIS and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) conducted extensive large-scale surveys, control, outreach, and regulatory efforts and found Broward and Miami-Dade Counties free of GAS for three consecutive years. Therefore, APHIS is releasing the final three zones, E, X, and Z, and all other areas in the counties that have been under regulation since April 2012.

On September 9, 2011, APHIS confirmed the first detection of GAS in a residential area in Miami, Florida. In April 2012, APHIS issued Federal Order DA-2012-1 that established the requirements of the regulatory actions and quarantine borders. Since then, a series of letters to the State and Territory Agricultural Regulatory Officials (SPRO) have refined the program that led to the eradication of GAS.

Consequently, APHIS is declaring eradication of GAS, and is rescinding the Federal Order and all the SPRO Letters that regulated the GAS infestation in Florida.

 Information about the GAS program can be found on the following designated website:

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant-health/gas

For additional information regarding the GAS program, please contact the National Operations Manager, Melinda Sullivan, at (970) 494-7580.

 

Dr. Osama El-Lissy
Deputy Administrator
Plant Protection and Quarantine


Attachment: Federal Order