Quarantine Problems Associated with the Importation of Bananas from Mexico

Abstract

U. S. Public Health Service quarantine personnel inspected 100 trucks carrying Mexican bananas as they were unloaded in Brownsville, Texas, in 1964-65. Of the animals recovered of possible public health interest, 5 species of vertebrates and 31 species of invertebrates have been identified. Included are several species not established in the United States. Rice rats, Oryzomys couesi (Alston), and harvest mice, Reithrodontomys fulvescens J. A. Allen. were the commonest rodents taken. An average of a rat or a mouse was captured for approximately each 2 trucks examined. This study suggests that present quarantine regulations should be strengthened to prevent more effectively the entrance of potential reservoirs and vectors of zoonotic infections in bananas and other fruit or vegetables imported by land vehicles.