United States Department of Agriculture
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Program Aid No. 1795
Center for Plant Health
Science and Technology
National Programs
Agricultural Quarantine Inspection
and Port Technology
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Who We Are
The mission of the Center for Plant Health Science
and Technology’s (CPHST) Agricultural Quarantine
Inspection and Port Technology (AQIPT) Program is
to provide scientific support to regulatory program
managers and decisionmakers engaged in strategic
planning and deployment of programs in the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) Plant Protection
and Quarantine (PPQ) branch.
The vision of the CPHST AQIPT program and APHIS–
PPQ is to safeguard American agriculture and natural
resources by developing, adapting, and supporting
technology to detect, identify, and mitigate the risk
posed by exotic pests in preclearance programs and
at ports-of-entry. The core activities of the AQIPT
program include quarantine treatment development,
treatment manual support for ports-of-entry,
shipping-container and vessel certification, develop-
ment of methyl bromide alternatives, maintenance of
a database on methyl bromide use, certification of
international commodity treatment facilities in pre-
clearance programs, and development of detection
technologies for port deployment (e.g., chemical
sensors, acoustical detectors, and agricultural
x-ray technology).
CPHST scientists are working on methods of improv-
ing the efficacy of alternatives to fumigation, such as
vapor heat treatments and irradiation, to kill fruit-fly
eggs and larvae in fruit. Here, a Mediterranean fruit
fly prepares to deposit her eggs on coffee beans.
(Image downloaded from http://www.invasive.org/images
and used by permission.)
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What We Do
To improve APHIS PPQ program management,
AQIPT personnel:
• Oversee all PPQ agricultural quarantine inspection
and port technology development programs and
personnel;
• Provide scientific support for