Whittier, California - CDFA’s citrus health program is hard at work in Southern California, surveying thousands of trees for signs of huanglongbing (HLB), or citrus greening, in areas where the disease has already been detected. The objective is to try to contain HLB before it decimates residential citrus trees and threatens commercial groves. A detection of the disease is a death sentence for  a citrus tree, there is no cure for HLB.

A producer for Agence France-Presse, a French news agency, recently caught up with a survey crew in Whittier, Los Angeles County. The European Union, which includes France, is a popular destination for California lemon exports.

In this short video, CDFA environmental scientist Patty Tran demonstrates a part of the survey process that utilizes an effective tool for detecting Asian citrus psyllids, the carriers of the bacteria that cause HLB.