Mission
The Tennessee Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS) / Pest Detection Program is a Cooperation between the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), the University of Tennessee (UT), and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA). The CAPS program was designed to provide a framework for planning, preparedness, response, and recovery from invasive pests of regulatory significance on a state and national level. The mission of CAPS is to collect data about exotic plant pests of concern to Tennessee, provide and share survey tools, and collaborate with pest management efforts of Tennessee’s federal, state, and county agencies. Exotic survey targets include plant diseases, insects, weeds, nematodes, and other invertebrate organisms.
Objectives
The primary objective of the CAPS program is to safeguard our nation’s food and environmental security from invasive pests that threaten our production and ecological systems. The primary goals of this program are:
- Detect exotic pests before they can become well-established.
- Facilitate the export of U.S. Agricultural products.
- Collect and manage survey data from USDA PPQ (Plant Protection & Quarantine) cooperative programs.
Pest Tracker is the public face of invasive pest detection surveys that take place nationwide. For more information about the national CAPS program, please visit the CAPS Resource and Collaboration website.