ISHS Acta Horticulturae 291: III International Mango Symposium
QUARANTINE DISINFESTATION MEASURES FOR AUSTRALIAN MANGOES |
| Authors: | N.W. Heather, R.J. Corcoran, T.A. Heard |
| Abstract:
The major pests of quarantine importance to which Australian mangoes are a host are the fruit flies, Bactrocera tryoni (Groggatt), B. neohumeralis (Perkins), B. jarvisi (Tyrone) and B. aquilonis (May), and the mango seed weevil, Sternochaetus mangiferae (Fabricius). Constraints on trade resulting from fruit fly are much more widespread than those resulting from seed weevil. Disinfestation with ethylene dibromide 20 g/m3 for 2 hr has been the accepted disinfestation treatment for Queensland fruit fly since 1975. With the current phasing out of this chemical world wide from 1984 it became necessary to try other treatments. These involved dips and packing line flood treatments with dimethoate (400 mg/L) or fenthion (400 mg/L), and gamma irradiation at 75 Gy. Heat treatments, particularly vapour heat, are currently under development. Irradiation and heat treatments are attractive because of the absence of chemical residues following treatment. Cold disinfestation is unsuitable because of susceptibility of fruit to damage at the temperature/time schedules required. Disinfestation for mango seed weevil is more difficult to achieve than for fruit flies. The only treatment likely to be successful is irradiation. Provided that the criterion for quarantine security is taken as "no viable adults" it is likely that a suitable minimum dose can be proved. Work on seed weevil is hampered by the absence of laboratory culture and infestation methods which are essential for identification of the most tolerant stage(s) of the life cycle and systematic confirmatory testing. | |
Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (free software to read PDF files) | |
