PH mango producers get boost in battle against fruit flies

MANGO producers saddled by strict phytosanitary and quarantine measures imposed by Japan, the US, Australia and other countries can now use a technology developed to combat festering fruit flies.

The genetic technology to combat fruit flies is now being propagated worldwide by Oxitec, a company founded in 2002 based on the work done by experts from the Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

Oxitec has collaborated with Institute Pasteur, the Malaysian Ministry of Health, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Moscamed Brazil and the Cayman Isladns Mosquito Research and Control Unit in testing the technology, which uses genetic manipulation “that is safe sustainable, economic and applicable to many insect species worldwide.”

The technique is particularly applicable to mango and other fruit exports saddled by fruit flies since it reduces the insect and pest populations through the rearing of insects that are sterilized with irradiation, with the males mating with wild females but the progeny do not survive.

Rendering male insects sterile boosts the campaign against plant pests, Oxitec says, and it can also work on vector-borne diseases, particularly malaria and other ailments, and can be used to wipe out termites, cockroaches and other vermin.

 Genetic manipulation of insects also have a positive role in improving sericulture, increasing the production of silk, spider silk and baculovirus.

The sterile insect technique (SIT) developed by Oxitec rears millions of sterile insects and releases them over a wide area to target pests.

Oxitec said the New World screwworm was eradicated in 16 states in the US and Central America through SIT.

SIT is species-specific, the company adds, and is compatible with the integrated pest management (IPM) practiced all over the globe, particularly in the Philippines.

It has actually been used for the past 50 years but the application has been limited by current technology, Oxitec said.

SIT has been acclaimed as a Technology Pioneer in 2008, Innovator of the Year in 2009 and accepted by the World Health Organization (WHO) as am appropriate response to pest control and eradication of insect-borne diseases.

SIT-reared insects can be bi-sex lethal, meaning they kill all progeny while the female-specific lethal insects are deadly to females, thus reducing reproduction and eventually eliminates the target species.

In the mass rearing facilities operated by Oxitec, the insects are maintained as “transgene homozygotes on a tetracycline diet but in the pre-release generation, larvae are fed with non-tetracycline diet to produce males only.”

They are then released in the target areas, mating with females and producing “all progeny that are transgene heterozygous, but only males survive since no tetracycline is available.”

Oxitec said the system is actually a chemical-free pest control method that target specific species and can be employed over a large area with the net effect of eradicating pests.

The company stressed that contained tests over the years showed excellent results and for this reason, SIT may very well be applied by mango growers and other fruit companies that are into exporting healthy and insect-free products all over the world. 

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