Orateur
Description
The mango fruit is socio-economically important around the world. However, its production faces flies rendering the fruit unsuitable for consumption and for marketing.
The present study was conducted in two mango orchards in Bujumbura to contribute to the knowledge of the pest fruit flies in the study area for a better orchard management through the production of fruits matching the international trade and consumption standards.
Flies were collected by food-bait trapping and incubation of fruits from four mango varieties: Kent, Boribo, Sindano, and Valencia. Data was collected from November to January 2023.
A total of 4,322 specimens of flies were collected, of which 3,361 by food baits and 961 by fruit incubation. Seven fly species were collected by baits: Bactrocera dorsalis, B. latifrons, B. bigutulla, Ceratitis cosyra, Dacus bivittatus, D. punctantifrons and Zeugodacus cucurbitae. On the other hand, B. dorsalis was the only species caught through fruit incubation and the most abundant in the study area. The fruiting period accounted for a large number of catches, followed by the ripening and the post-harvest phases. Boribo variety was the most infested, with an overall infestation of 42.28 fruit flies per kg, followed by Valencia with 35.31 fruit flies per kg. Sindano and Kent varieties seemed to be less infected with 22.58 and 11.22 fruit flies per kg, respectively. Destruction level was 95% for Boribo, Kent and Valencia, and 65% for Sindano. For both infestation and destruction levels, there was no statistically significant difference between harvested and fallen fruits. Globally, phenological phases had an influence on fruit fly populations, all the four mango varieties were attacked and losses were important. The work provided a database on fruit fly population dynamics for future researches and for the implementation of an integrated management program for fly pests in Burundi
