Disinfestation of kiwifruit using cold storage as a quarantine treatment for mediterranean fruit fly (ceratitis capitata wiedemann)

Abstract

Kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) hold their quality extremely well in cold storage which makes cold treatments to achieve quarantine levels of disinfestation a viable alternative to current methyl bromide fumigation for export purposes. A series of trials, first using standard bioassay procedures and subsequently large-scale export simulations, were conducted at 0 and 1°C against the Mediterranean fruit fly. The results demonstrated that the exposure periods required to achieve 99.9968% (probit 9) mortality were obtained in 12 days at 0°C and in 14 days at 1°C. © 1992 The Royal Society of New Zealand.