Description:

Background:

Since 2015, my China projects shift from HLB/ACP to the research intended to prevent fruit flies from China invade U.S.
Fruit flies are among the most devastating agricultural pests world wide. The fruit fly such as the Oriental Fruit Fly, Bactrocera dorsalis, which widely occur in China, other Asian countries, and Hawaii, can cause huge economic and environmental issues if entering mainland of US. Preventing these pests from invasion of U.S. through trade and traveler relies on our knowledge and scientific understandings such as pest distribution, invasion biology, pest management, and risk mitigation options.
USDA APHIS is keen in support research works which contribute the knowledge for prevent these pests from entering U.S., as well as developing techniques for detecting, survey, eradicate these pests.
USDA APHIS $1.68 mil, $615,000 match fund and in-kind contribution from local Chinese governments and collaborators. Seven universities and research institutes in China, lab and field studies are being conducted in across China’s

What we did:

Test lures in half region of China
- Effective lure is the first defense if invasion occur
- Field tests were conducted across China’s entire citrusproduction region
Collect, bag, and cut 52,440 (46,400 mandarins, and 6,040 pomelo) citrus fruits in two provinces to study the effectiveness of different pest management techniques. No such a scale was ever conducted in China, might be one of the largest fruit cutting studies ever conducted in the world
Study plant volatiles and insect pheromone of fruit fly to develop more potent lure. USDA APHIS CPHST Otis lab, Northwest A&F Univ, and Southwest University of China. First year field test demonstrated that a potential pheromone discovered by Otis Lab can enhance trapping efficacy significantly

Accomplishment & impact:

Pre-active going to the country where potential severe threats are, before invasion occur
Generated substantial scientific knowledge about severe invasive pests in case of invasion
Discovering an urgent technical gap in defending U.S. agriculture, especially the citrus industry, from the invasion of a major pest fruit fly – no lure is effective in detecting low population of the pest, the implication can be significant in case of an invasion occur.
Field trap tests were conducted in several locations across China
For that reason, a new collaborative project just initiates with participation of USDA-APHIS-Center for Plant Health Science and Technology, Four Chinese institutes: Northwest A&F University, Southwest University, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, and Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences to discover more effective lures for attracting the pest. Especially we are working on discovering plant volatiles and insect pheromones. Field experiment indicated one potential pheromone might be effective. And two potential plant volatiles are going to be tested in the field next year.
A largest number of fruit cutting was ever conducted to study the efficacy of packinghouse culling and fruit bagging for managing the pest risk. This work was supported locally by then Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine, Xiamen Customs, Hunan Customs, and Yang’s Enterprise Group.

Region(s)/Country(s): China-Peoples Rep

Dates:
08/01/2017 - 07/31/2022

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