RULES AMENDED FOR PIGEON PEA AND MANGO IMPORTS

RULES AMENDED FOR PIGEON PEA AND MANGO IMPORTS    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will amend its regulations for the treatment of pigeon peas imported from the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
   The agency has also amended its rules for the treatment of pigeon peas imported from the Dominican Republic.
   APHIS is concerned about the spread of the pigeon pea pod fly to the U.S. mainland. The agency recommends treating the pigeon pea shipments with methyl bromide fumigation before importation.
   In addition, APHIS will prohibit the importation of mangoes from the British Virgin Islands to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
   “Although we recently approved an irradiation treatment for mangoes, which has been shown to eliminate the mango seed weevil, we chose prohibition in this case because there does not appear to be commercial shipment of mangoes or other fruits and vegetables from the British Virgin Islands to the U.S. Virgin Islands that would support an irradiation facility in the British Virgin Islands,” APHIS said.