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3. Interior Exclusion

Interior Pest Exclusion

• Interior Pest Exclusion personnel are responsible for enforcement of federal, foreign and domestic plant pest quarantines, as well as California state exterior and interior quarantines and county restrictions and ordinances.
• Interior Pest Exclusion personnel work cooperatively with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), other state departments of agriculture, and the California county agricultural commissioners. Interior Pest Exclusion staff also cooperates with other governmental agencies such as the United States Department of the Interior, the United States Customs Service, and the California Departments of Fish and Game, Forestry and Fire Protection, Public Health, and Pesticide Regulation in the enforcement of their respective regulations.
• Pest Exclusion is the cornerstone of pest prevention. In many instances, exclusion is the first, last and only means to keep exotic pests from invading California.

Programs

• County Quarantine Inspections Under state supervision and training, biologists from the agricultural commissioner's office in each county conduct agricultural product inspections at airport, maritime, truck, rail, U.S. Mail and commercial parcel carrier facilities and terminals throughout California.
• Quarantine Response When agricultural pests and diseases of concern are discovered in California, immediate quarantine action may be taken to regulate the production and movement of "host" material from within the boundaries of the infested area, to limit the further spread of the pest.
• Phytosanitary Certification Nursery, Seed and Quality Cotton Shipments for export must be certified as meeting the pest exclusion requirements of other countries and states, and accompanying documents are prepared stating the commodity is free of specific pests of quarantine concern.