What does MEDFLY stand for?

Speaking about the Novorossiysk port authority's decision to turn back the shipment, the city's press contact, Aleksey Alekseyenko, was quoted by Cihan as stating that the 24-ton cargo was infected by the Mediterranean fruit fly, an insect that frequently contaminates fruit shipments in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Japanese scientists visited in February and found the Mediterranean fruit fly, or medfly, was no longer present, said Akiko Takenaka, an official with the Japanese embassy's Technical and Economic Cooperation Office in the DR.

Entomologists also used the technique to clear California citrus groves of the invasive Mediterranean fruit fly and to eradicate a livestock parasite, the New World screw-worm fly, from North and Central America.

The Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata), commonly called the medfly, is one of the world's most destructive agricultural pests.