Mediterranean fruit fly.
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Agricultural Research Service Hosts Fruit
Fly Conference By
Alfredo Flores
May 14 2004
WASHINGTON, May 14Researchers from the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Agricultural Research Service will
co-host the 5th Meeting of the Working Group of Fruit Flies of the Western
Hemisphere, set for May 16-21 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The conference is
designed to bring together entomologists, chemists, geneticists, biologists,
taxonomists, consultants, managers and regulators who are actively involved in
all aspects of tephritid fruit fly detection.
Among the attendees will be representatives from scientific
organizations in Guatemala, Austria, the Dominican Republic, Argentina,
Australia, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Georgia,
Greece, Israel, Italy, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Suriname,
the Netherlands and the United States. The speakers will discuss methods of
detection, control and eradication, as well as biological control and
regulatory procedures.
ARS'
Subtropical
Horticulture Research Station at Miami is co-hosting the meeting together
with USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) in Miami and the
University of Florida's
Institute of Food and Agricultural
Sciences in Gainesville. APHIS manages programs using biological control
for invasive species. ARS is the chief in-house scientific research agency of
USDA.
Meeting participants will review research and formulate new
goals and approaches to management strategies and action programs for
Mediterranean fruit flies, also known as medflies, as well as Anastrepha,
Bactrocera, Rhagoletis and other tephritid fruit flies.
The adult female medfly damages ripe fruit by making a hole and
depositing her eggs under the skin of the fruit. Once the larvae hatch, they
satisfy their appetites by feeding on the pulp of the fruit, rendering it unfit
for human consumption. APHIS estimates that agricultural losses would be about
$1.5 billion a year if medflies were to become established in the continental
United States. |