ABSTRACT
The purpose of the databases developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is to facilitate the collection and sharing of data among fruit fly workers and to provide access to information that details findings on doses required for phytosanitary irradiation (PI) and for the purpose of applying the sterile insect technique (SIT) as part of area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) programs. These include: Tephritid Workers Database (TWD), the International Database on Insect Disinfestation and Sterilization (IDIDAS), and the World-Wide Directory of SIT Facilities (DIR-SIT). These databases have been continuously updated and populated with new data, including the TWD list of over 1500 members and more than 7000 literature references relevant to tephritid fruit flies. Furthermore, TWD hosts the web pages of the three regional tephritid worker groups and their respective Steering Committees: the Tephritid Workers of the Western Hemisphere (TWWH), the Tephritid Workers of Europe, Africa and the Middle East (TEAM) and the Tephritid Workers of Asia, Australia and Oceania (TAAO). IDIDAS includes 373 insect datasheets with radiation doses for sterilization and phytosanitary irradiation extracted from over 5400 references. DIR-SIT lists 38 mass-rearing facilities, including details about the insect species, the production capacity, and the irradiation sterilization parameters. The newly developed International Database on Commodity Tolerance (IDCT) helps to determine the tolerated PI dose for the disinfestation of fresh products. Up-to-now, data have been retrieved for IDCT from 243 references and have returned 156 different cultivars belonging to 89 fresh commodities (fruit, vegetables, and cut flowers). IDCT is an added value to IDIDAS and both share several common resources. With IDIDAS and IDCT data, food safety officers can select the optimum dose that balances between the insect/mite pest sterility or lethality and the commodity tolerance. In addition, technical resources, news, 370newsletters, event calendars, and photo galleries have been included in these databases. The monitoring and evaluation of the performance of these sites in terms of the audience and visits are tracked via Google Analytics.
With these four databases, TWD, IDIDAS, IDCT, and DIR-SIT, FAO and IAEA are offering a valuable repository of information and a comprehensive networking service to their member states. The objective of this chapter is to provide an overview of these resources to the community of tephritid fruit fly workers, including some information on their metrics.
