Fruit Flies: conclusions of the meeting of the Tephritid workers held in Buenos Aires

With great success and large attendance of participants, the 9th Meeting of the Tephritid Workers of the Western Hemisphere was held in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 16 to 21 October 2016.

313 participants from 26 countries attended the Meeting, including representatives of the scientific-academic sphere, public bodies and companies supplying inputs and services.

The meeting was structured in 11 sessions, with 63 oral presentations and 97 posters, ranging from biology and the impact of global change to action programs, including the development and use of support technologies for surveillance and control of pest populations.

An innovation of this meeting was the session on Political and socio-economic analysis of action programs where, in addition to the conferences of various control programs, two panel discussions were organized: one with representatives of national plant protection organizations and another one with representatives of regional organizations of the continent (OIRSA, NAPPO, CPHD, COSAVE and IICA). Both these panels were focused on the cost-benefit analysis of area-wide action programs including the use of the sterile insect technique, the importance of public policies for pest control and the interaction between countries to address common sanitary problems. Also, a side session was provided for representatives of fruit producers and traders where they offered their views on the impact of fruit flies control programs.

All the topics discussed were very interesting and created opportunities for discussion and enriching exchanges among participants. It is expected that the new knowledge, technologies and innovations presented will contribute to the improvement of fruit fly control programs in our continent, in order to increase the production of healthy and better quality fruits for commercialization in national and international markets.

As a result of the meeting a document was drafted containing recommendations that will serve as a reference for all those people dealing with fruit flies, and will guide research and development in priority issues for the coming years.

The final version of the aforementioned document will be soon available on the event s website (http://9twwh.senasa.gob.ar/), along with the book of abstracts, pdf versions of the posters, contact information of the speakers, and illustrative photographs of the meeting, including those taken during technical visits to the fruit growing areas of San Pedro (Buenos Aires) and Monte Caseros (Corrientes).

The tenth meeting will be held in 2020. Delegates from Colombia, the Dominican Republic and the United States expressed the interest of their countries in hosting the next meeting. The next venue will be selected by the international steering committee in 2018, after receiving the formal proposals. This committee was restructured and its new Chair is Dr. Teresa Vera (Argentinean researcher from the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research - CONICET in Spanish - and professor at the National University of Tucumán).