Hot Water Treatment for Post-Harvest Disinfestation of Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae) and Its Effect on cv. Tommy Atkins Mango

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The oriental fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis is a major quarantine pest in sub-Saharan Africa that threatens mango production and international trade. In this study, we developed a hot water treatment (HWT) protocol for the post-harvest disinfestation of B. dorsalis and assessed its impact on cv. Tommy Atkins mango quality parameters after treatment. First, we established the rate of development of the immature stages of B. dorsalis in cv. Tommy Atkins mango and then determined their heat tolerance. The third-instar larva was found to be the most heat tolerant of the immature stages. The study demonstrates that a hot water treatment schedule of 46.1 °C for 72.63 min can lead to complete mortality of the most heat-tolerant stage of B. dorsalis in cv. Tommy Atkins mango. Furthermore, we carried out large-scale confirmatory trials to validate our hot water treatment schedule, and none of the 59,120 most heat-tolerant larvae treated survived. Our protocol guarantees effective quarantine security with no adverse effect on the quality of cv. Tommy Atkins mango fruit and can be commercially adopted to promote and increase mango exports to lucrative markets abroad. ABSTRACT: Mango production and trade in sub-Saharan Africa is hampered by direct damage and the high quarantine status of B. dorsalis and the paucity of effective post-harvest phytosanitary treatments. The current study reports the development of a quarantine treatment protocol using hot water to disinfest B. dorsalis and assess its effect on cv. Tommy Atkins mango quality. We first determined the development of the eggs and all larval stages of B. dorsalis in cv. Tommy Atkins mango and used the information to establish a time–mortality relationship of the immature stages after subjecting infested fruits to a regimen of eight, time instances of hot water at 46.1 °C. Using probit analysis, we estimated the minimum time required to achieve 99.9968% mortality of each stage. Our results indicate that the egg was the least heat tolerant, followed by the first, second, and third instar. The time required to achieve 99.9968% control of the third instar in cv. Tommy Atkins mango (400–600 g) was determined to be 72.63 min (95% Cl: 70.32–74.95). In the confirmatory trials, the hot water treatment schedule of 46.1 °C/72.63 min was validated, and none of the 59,120 most heat-tolerant individuals treated survived. Further, there were no significant differences between hot water-treated and untreated mangoes recorded in weight loss, fruit firmness, pH, total soluble solids, moisture content, and titratable acidity eleven days post-treatment. These findings demonstrate an effectively optimum post-harvest disinfestation treatment against B. dorsalis in cv. Tommy Atkins mango that should be adopted commercially to facilitate access to profitable but strict export markets globally.