Pamphlet

Nation, from having its stone-fruit exports quarantined. CAPS-generated information saved the
stone-fruit industry millions of dollars in potentially
lost exports.

meticulously gather plant pest data, are important links in safeguarding U.S. agriculture and
natural resources from accidental or intentional
introductions of exotic plant pests. CAPS survey
and monitoring programs are essential for understanding the scope of exotic pests in the United
States today. As this country continues to
expand its export markets around the world and
increases the variety of agricultural commodities
it imports, PPQ and the CAPS program will be at
the forefront of shaping the rules and regulations
for safeguarding U.S. agriculture in the 21st
century.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) prohibits discrimination in all
its programs and activities on the
basis of race, color, national origin,
sex, religion, age, disability, political
beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital or
family status. (Not all prohibited bases
apply to all programs.) Persons with
disabilities who require alternative
means for communication of program
information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s
TARGET Center at (202) 720–2600
(voice and TDD).
To file a complaint of discrimination,
write USDA, Director, Office of Civil
Rights, Room 326–W, Whitten
Building, 14th and Independence
Avenue, SW, Washington, DC
20250–9410 or call (202) 720–5964
(voice and TDD). USDA is an equal
opportunity provider and employer.

Hand-held global positioning devices and bar-coding technologies are
used to track the exact coordinates of every field that is sampled for
exotic pests, diseases, or weeds. The data are then used to create
survey maps detailing the distribution of each. (APHIS photo by Ann
Czapiewski.)

Expanding Plant-Pest Preparedness
and Response Capability
With the enormous range of foreign and domestic pests that could wreak havoc on native plant
species and agricultural industries, protecting
U.S. agriculture and plant resources is an almost
overwhelming job. Sharing that burden across
government and private-sector organizations
makes the job doable. CAPS continually strives
to broaden its network of partners and improve
its information sharing with cooperators. By partnering and by engaging nontraditional survey
partners, CAPS can expand its mission to
address unintentional and intentional plant-pest
introductions.
APHIS’ Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ)
officials partner with Federal and State agencies,
industries, and professional organizations to
develop and maintain effective emergency
response systems to detect, respond to, and
eliminate outbreaks of invasive pests and diseases. PPQ and State CAPS cooperators, who

Protecting U.S. agriculture through the early detection of foreign pests
requires the cooperation and coordination of USDA, State governments, and industry. Helping to ensure effective and efficient coordination between these entities, CAPS provides the infrastructure and
funding to collect, manage, and share pest survey data. (ARS photo
by Scott Bauer.)

For More Information
For more information about PPQ pest detection,
please visit:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/ep/pestdetection
on the Web.

Cover photo: Early detection of foreign plant pests and
weeds minimizes agricultural production costs and results
in an abundant and affordable supply of food and plant
products for domestic and export markets. (The apple
orchard image was taken by USDA Agricultural Research
Service [ARS] photographer Scott Bauer. The picture of
the false codling moth, which came from
< http://www.forestryimages.org>, was taken by the Tertia
Grové Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Crops.)
This publication supersedes Program Aid No. 1710, “Plant
Protection and Quarantine: Detecting Plant Pests and
Weeds Through a National Survey Program,” which was
published in April 2002 and reprinted in September 2004.
Issued July 2005

United States Department of Agriculture
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Program Aid No. 1830

The Cooperative
Agricultural
Pest Survey
Detecting Plant Pests
and Weeds Nationwide

In today’s era of globalization,
the risk of foreign plant pest
introductions is increasing.

has become a proactive management tool used
to prepare for plant health emergencies and
strengthen offshore pest-exclusion programs.

Some of these plant pests leave almost immediate evidence of their presence—signs of disease
or weed growth—and spread rapidly. Other
pests, however, can go undetected for months or
even years in the absence of vigilant surveillance.

Without early detection, plant
pests can become established in
the United States and permanently
damage agricultural resources
and the environment.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA)
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
(APHIS) estimates that introduced plant pests
result in an annual $41 billion loss to American
agriculture and cost taxpayers millions more dollars in control expenditures. Early detection of
pests minimizes agricultural production costs,
enhances product quality and marketability, and
results in an abundant and affordable supply of
food, fiber, plants, and plant products for domestic and export markets.
Recognizing that early pest detection can lessen
such expenditures, the Federal Government
established a nationwide system of experts to
track plant pests of concern. The Cooperative
Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS), as its name
suggests, is a pest-surveillance program managed cooperatively by USDA–APHIS and State
departments of agriculture. Universities, industry
groups, and natural resource protection organizations are also partners in the program.

Early Detection of
Foreign Plant Pests
The primary function of CAPS is to survey,
identify, and monitor pests of concern to U.S.
agriculture and plant resources. Located in all 50
States and 3 territories, CAPS program personnel track more than 400 pests nationwide.

Scientists speculate that the ALB arrived in the United States via
infested wooden pallets from Asia. The insect has the potential to
destroy millions of acres of America’s treasured forests and park and
backyard trees if it becomes established here. Experts believe that
the ALB was introduced into the country more than 10 years before
the first infestation was found in New York in 1996. (APHIS photo by
R. Anson Eaglin.)

Between 1985 and 2002, APHIS intercepted
more than 7,400 different species of plant pests
at U.S. ports-of-entry. Many of these pests could
have become established if they had been
allowed to enter the country.
As the rate of interceptions continues to climb,
so do the high costs of eradicating foreign pests,
such as the Asian longhorned beetle (ALB), the
emerald ash borer, and citrus canker. The ALB
outbreak in Illinois, New Jersey, and New York
dramatically illustrates the need for early detection of foreign pests. Between 1996 and 2004,
$194 million was spent on controlling the ALB by
removing infested or potentially infested trees.
But the ALB is just one pest of concern. CAPS
cooperators survey for many others. To prioritize
survey and response efforts, CAPS maintains a
comprehensive list of target species that are
potential threats to the Nation’s agricultural and
environmental resources. Originally a short and
simple list of pest names, it has now grown to
about 400 species, ranked according to their
potential environmental and economic impacts.
This list includes both pests of limited distribution
in the United States and pests not yet found in
the country. By including foreign pests, the list

Asian soybean rust (Phakopsora pachyrhizi), a
fungal disease naturally introduced into the
Southeastern United States in the fall of 2004,
offers a good example of how the target list can
be used proactively. When the disease was
first detected in northern Brazil in 2002, APHIS
immediately began work on emergencypreparedness and response guidelines for its
inevitable spread to U.S. soybean production
areas by windborne spores. Therefore, when
the disease arrived in the country, U.S. farmers
and agricultural authorities were prepared to
deal with it.

Management of a National Plant
Pest Database and Survey Tools
The National Agricultural Pest Information
System (NAPIS), which has a Web-based interface, collects data to help plant health officials
make policy and management decisions in the
event of pest incursions, evaluate market-access
bids for U.S. exports, and justify quarantine
measures to exclude potentially harmful foreign
organisms.
Utilizing data-collection devices, such as personal digital assistants and global positioning system
units, CAPS pest surveyors collect climatology,
environmental, and pest-specific information in a
State database. Software such as the Integrated
Survey Information System then integrates the
survey information into the national database,
which currently maintains records on more than
4,800 different pests and 1.4 million individual
records on insects, fungi, weeds, mollusks, and
biological control organisms.
In addition to managing national pest-distribution
data, CAPS is at the forefront of developing
state-of-the-art survey and predictive modeling
tools. The North Carolina State University/APHIS
Plant Pest Forecast System (NAPPFAST), an
Internet-based modeling tool, utilizes weather,

soil, and climate information to predict when and
where a particular pest might establish itself in
the United States. CAPS sponsored the development of NAPPFAST in 2002 and has since used
it extensively to guide survey efforts for plant diseases such as soybean rust.

Since the discovery of plum pox—a nonnative viral disease of stone
fruit—in 1999, CAPS surveyors have sampled more than a million
trees and pieces of fruit looking for the virus. Intensive surveys were
conducted in Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, South
Carolina, California, and Pennsylvania, but the disease has been
found in only four Pennsylvania counties. (APHIS photo by R. Anson
Eaglin.)

Supporting Exports of U.S.
Agricultural Commodities
Aimed at increasing the free flow of trade and
eliminating the potential for countries to use
pests as artificial barriers to trade, CAPS survey
data support the development and expansion of
export markets by identifying pest-free regions.
The establishment of pest-free regions allows
the continued export of commodities from a particular area within a country if it can demonstrate
that the area has been historically free of a particular pest, even if the pest is established in surrounding areas.
Such an event occurred when Pennsylvania officials discovered an outbreak of plum pox virus—
a destructive disease of stone fruits—in October
1999. CAPS program data proved that the disease was isolated to four Pennsylvania counties
and kept the entire State, and perhaps the entire