**United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service**  **Plant Protection and Quarantine** 

## Amend PPQ Treatment Manual to Add a New Cold **Treatment for Fresh ‘Barhi’**  **Dates ( Phoenix dactylifera** **) Treatment**  **Evaluation Document** (TED )

**Date** : November 29, 2011 **Treatments, Pests, Commodities and Countries New Treatment/**  **Revision/Deletion Treatment Type**  **Target Pests Commodity**  **Applicable Country(ies) of** 

**origin** New Treatment Cold Treatment ( 3 ) Mediterranean fruit fly ( Ceratitis capitata ) ‘Barhi’

Dates All

**Objective:** To provide supporting information and justification for changes being proposed to phy

tosanitary treatments in the PPQ Treatment Manual. The change, which will facilitate trade of fresh Barhi variety dates (Phoenix dactylifera ) from countries/areas infested with Mediterranean fruit fly ( Ceratitis capitata ), is being made because new data demonstrate the efficacy of the treatment against C. cap itata on ‘Barhi’ dates. **Overview:** Currentl y APHI S does not permit the use of cold treatment as a phtysanitary treatment for Mediterranean fruit fl y ( Ceratitis capitata ) in fresh dates. Israel is seeking market access for their ‘Barhi’ dates and has submitted research information in support of cold treatment of Medfl y in this commodity (Gazit 2008). **Evaluation:** APHI S evaluated these data and has recommended regulatory approval of new treatments based on the data. The evaluation and recommendatio n for approval is as follows. **Addition of cold treatments for fresh dates for Mediterranean fruit fly** Based on the data submitted by Gazit (2008) in I srael dates, we accept and propose the following three treatment schedules to cold treat fresh ‘Barhi’ dates for Mediterranean2

fruit fly ( Ceratitis capitata ):

 14 days at 1 .11 degree s Centigrade or below (or 34 degrees Fahrenheit or below), or  16 days at 1.67 degrees Centigrade or below (or 35 degrees Fahrenheit or below) , or  18 days at 2.22 degrees Centigrade or below (or 36 degrees Fahrenheit or below) The above three treatment options are similar to those of T107

- a, which is an APHI S approved treatment against both Mediterranean fruit fly and Natal fruit fl y ( Ceratitis rosa ) for a number of fruits but not for dates.

But since the data submitted by Gazit (2008) reflect treatment efficacy only against Mediterranean fruit fly , and we are not aware of any data outlining the efficacy of the proposed cold treatment against the Natal fruit fly in dates, therefore, for dates, the above treatment is recommended only for Mediterranean fruit fl y and not Natal fr uit fly at this time. This means a new schedule for Mediterranean fruit fly in ‘Barhi’ dates alone is required to be added to the treatment manual. Other conditions as described in 7CFR305. 6 also apply
. **Decision:** Amend PPQ Treatment Manual to add the above proposed treatment for fresh ‘Barhi’ dates for Mediterranean fruit fly ( Ceratitis capitata ).3

**Author:** Inder Paul S. Gadh, Ph.D. Senior Risk Manager

– Treatments USDA APHI S PPQ PHP
**References:** Gazit, Y. 2008. Cold tolerance of the Mediterranean fruit fl y in dates and in mandarin. Technical Report.