An improved system to assess insect tolerance to heated controlled atmosphere quarantine treatment.

摘要

When developing a new postharvest quarantine treatment for fresh fruits and vegetables, certain elements should be included in the experimentation and documentation of the procedure (NAPPO, 2011). First, it is essential to identify the pest(s) of concern and the most tolerant developmental stage of each species that could be in or on the commodity at the time of harvest or export. These tests usually involve the mass rearing thousands of insects, identi?cation of the developmental stages, and treatment of large numbers of each stage over a range of ‘doses’ (e.g., time and temperature in the case of thermal treatments). The experiments need to be designed so that appropriate statistical analyses can be performed to compare the response of the different stages with one another to identify the most tolerant stage. Following the identi?cation of the most tolerant stage of a species, it may be necessary to compare the relative tolerance of two or more species with one another to identify the most tolerant species to a particular treatment.