Apple Maggot Found in B.C.

BURNABY, February 12, 2007 - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has detected apple maggot in two locations (Langley and Vancouver) in the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) and in two locations (Esquimalt and Victoria) on Vancouver Island.

The pest was found in 2006 at a several locations in Abbotsford, but the findings near Esquimalt and Victoria in October 2006 represent the first time that the insect has been confirmed on Vancouver Island. The CFIA discovered the pest during regular survey activities.

There has been no detection of apple maggot in the prime apple growing regions in the interior of the province. The introduction of the pest into these areas could seriously damage the province's apple industry.

To help prevent the spread of apple maggot to other parts of B.C., please contact the CFIA at 604-557-4500 if you are planning to move apples, apple trees or other host plants with soil, or nursery stock of apple, crabapple or hawthorn, into the interior of the province.

The apple maggot (Rhagoletis pomonella) is a fly which, in its larval stage, damages apples and other fruit by tunnelling through them. The principal hosts of apple maggot are apple, crabapple and hawthorn trees, however it also occasionally attacks plum, cherry, peach and pear trees. It poses no threat to human health.

Apple maggot is a quarantine pest in Canada. It is found throughout the rest of the country (except Newfoundland and Labrador and the Territories) and is widespread in the U.S. as well. Last year, U.S. officials detected apple maggot in Washington State just across the border from B.C.

For more information on apple maggot, please visit the CFIA Web site at http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/plaveg/pestrava/rhapom/rhapome.shtml.

-30-

Contacts:

CFIA media relations
(613) 228-6682

• Main Page - Apple Maggot