The government of India has requested the U.S. to allow grapes (Vitis vinifera L.) to be imported into the continental United States. The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) prepared a risk assessment to examine plant pest risks associated with importing the commercially produced fruit from India.
Based on the market access request submitted by India, APHIS considered the pathway to include the following processes and conditions: hand-harvesting, sorting, sizing, and cooling for shipment.
Based on the scientific literature, port-of-entry pest interception data, and information from the government of India, APHIS developed a list of all potential pests with actionable regulatory status for the continental U.S. that are known to occur in India (on any host) and to be associated with the commodity plant species (anywhere in the world).
Of these, APHIS found 22 organisms that have a reasonable likelihood of being associated with the commodity following harvesting from the field and prior to any postharvest processing, and thus are potentially able to follow the pathway.
APHIS analyzed the pest risk potential of these organisms and determined eight are not candidates for risk management, either because there is no endangered area within the continental U.S., so they were not likely to cause unacceptable consequences of introduction, or they received a negligible overall risk rating for likelihood of introduction (i.e., entry plus establishment) into the endangered area via the import pathway.
The remaining 14 organisms met the threshold for unacceptable consequences of introduction and had a non-negligible likelihood of introduction. APHIS therefore consider these pests to be candidates for risk management.
