U.S. Department of Agriculture - Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service - Plant Protection and Quarantine (USDA-APHIS-PPQ) has developed a Regulated Plant Pest List (RPPL). This provides trading partners with an official list of plant pests of concern to the U.S. along with providing greater transparency of Agency actions. The rationale is that through greater transparency, better information is made available, and unjustified phytosanitary trade barriers will be revealed, challenged, and eliminated. Additionally, the RPPL provides focus to APHIS' safeguarding activities, including inspection of commodities for pests in its pre-clearance programs and at U.S. ports-of-entry, surveys for exotic pests, methods for pest risk mitigation, and pest eradication programs.
The list largely was derived from pests identified in Title 7, Code of Federal Regulations, Parts 300-399. In addition, due to changes in pest status or new information, certain pests detected through inspection or survey may no longer be regulated. The list was updated to reflect recent taxonomic nomenclature and pest status. APHIS continually detects threatening new pests through its inspection and survey activities. Therefore, the RPPL does not include all pests for which APHIS would necessarily take action.
The RPPL is a living document to which additional species may be added as they are identified and their pest status documented. A primary source for names of species to be considered for addition to the RPPL has been through a list of arthropod plant pests that an Entomological Society of America pest list team provided APHIS. Pest risk assessments conducted on species from this list have resulted in the addition of several insect species to the RPPL.
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA