Effective immediately, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is removing 45,562.067 acres from the golden nematode (GN) regulated area in Suffolk County, New York and refining the global positioning system (GPS) points for the descriptions of the regulated area in the town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York. APHIS is removing these areas based on survey results and other criteria in the "Canada and United States Guidelines on Surveillance and Phytosanitary Actions for the Potato Cyst Nematodes, Globodera rostochiensis and Globodera pallida”.
Since 2010, APHIS, working closely with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets (NYS AGM), has removed 1,186,693.79 acres from the GN-regulated area in New York. APHIS and NYS AGM have an active control and mitigation program in place to prevent GN from spreading from the remaining 101,955.27 acres, including 5,945 GN-infested acres in eight New York counties. The specific GN-regulated areas are on the APHIS website.