North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

----------
From: "ARS News Service" <isnv@ars-grin.gov>
To: "ARS News List" <ars-news@ars-grin.gov>
Subject: "CATTS" Perfect for Zapping Apple Pests
Date: Wed, Feb 20, 2002, 6:41 AM


STORY LEAD:
"CATTS" Perfect for Zapping Apple Pests

___________________________________________

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Marcia Wood, (301) 504-1662, MarciaWood@ars.usda.gov
February 20, 2002
___________________________________________

Crunchy apples from orchards of the Pacific Northwest are eagerly sought by
food buyers in the United States and abroad. But some foreign buyers require
growers and packers to take special steps to ensure that the fruit exported
from the United States is free of certain pests. Agricultural officials in
South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Canada and Mexico, for example, are concerned
that codling moths or oriental fruit moths could escape from shipments and
invade orchards.

Agricultural Research Service entomologist Lisa G. Neven is providing
practical, affordable techniques that conventional and organic growers and
packers can use to disinfest their premium fruits. Neven is based at the ARS
Fruit and Vegetable Insect Research Unit in Wapato, Wash. She is doing these
experiments with PacOrganic and King Blossom, two organic producer-packers
in Washington state.

Neven's method, developed in ongoing experiments during the past nine years,
is called "CATTS"-- short for Controlled Atmosphere Temperature Treatment
System. CATTS relies on placing bins of fruit in chambers and then changing
the temperature and composition of the atmosphere surrounding the fruit for
a short period of time.

Her tests with apples showed that raising the temperature of the atmosphere
about 18 degrees F per hour until the fruits' internal temperature is 111 to
117 F, in a mix of 1 percent oxygen and 15 percent carbon dioxide, zaps any
living codling moths or oriental fruit moths.

According to Neven, the regimen helps maintain apples' quality longer. She
did these tests on more than 138,000 pounds of Gala, Jonagold, Braeburn,
Granny Smith, Fuji, and Golden and Red Delicious apples. Her work is based
in part on discoveries made by scientists in Israel.

Conventional growers who today fumigate their fruit for export with methyl
bromide are following Neven's studies because of the escalating cost of the
chemical.

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.

___________________________________________
This item is one of the news releases and story leads that ARS Information
distributes on weekdays to fax and e-mail subscribers. You can also get the
latest ARS news on the World Wide Web at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm.
* Feedback and questions to ARS News Service via e-mail:
NewsService@ars.usda.gov.
* ARS Information Staff, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD
20705-5128, (301) 504-1617, fax 504-1648.





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