Irradiation of Insects: Disinfestation

The purpose of a quarantine disinfestation treatment is to prevent the establishment of a pest associated with a commodity to be imported into a country or region where it does not already occur, or where its presence is restricted. Traditional treatments, which most commonly involved chemical fumigants, such as ethylene dibromide and methyl bromide, and both hot (43-48°C) and cold (0-3°C) temperatures, work by killing essentially 100% of all stages of quarantined pests that might be present in the commodity. Alternative quarantine treatments for fresh commodities are needed because fumigants are being lost due to health and environmental problems; heat damages many commodities, such as stone and pome fruits and avocados; and cold treatment requires 12 or more days. Ionizing irradiation was suggested as a possible quarantine treatment 70 years ago, and considerable research to that effect has been done during the past approximately 45 years. Furthermore, residue-free advantages of irradiation disinfestation over chemical fumigation have been demonstrated repeatedly. Unlike other disinfestation techniques, irradiation does not need to kill the pests to provide quarantine security; therefore, live, but sterile, insects may occur with the exported commodity, making inspection for the target pests redundant as a confirmation of treatment application and efficacy. Moreover, irradiation treatment can be applied to the commodity after packaging. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved