Introduction. Quarantine heat treatments have not yet been
introduced in West Africa and no work has been done to determine the treatment conditions
needed to eliminate eggs and larvae of West African fruit fly populations, especially of
the new species Bactrocera invadens, from mangoes produced in the region.
The objective of our study was to carry out hot water disinfestation experiments on
naturally infested mangoes to determine the exposure parameters required to kill eggs and
larvae of B. invadens present in commercial-quality fruits. The effects of hot water
treatment on fruit quality were also investigated. Materials and methods. A
tank with a heating element and a water pump equipped with a tank sensor were used.
Physiologically mature, hard, green mango fruits (cv. Kent) with potential export quality
but infested by B. invadens were harvested from plantations in the
Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina Faso) area. The effect of hot water treatment by immersion at
42.0 °C, 46.5 °C or 51.0 °C was evaluated by counting identifiable sites of fruit fly
oviposition before and after paring the fruit and, finally, the numbers of live and dead
larvae of B. invadens were counted in the pulp. The quality of the fruit
was evaluated after the hot water immersion. Results and discussion. A hot
water treatment resulting in a core temperature of 46.5 °C could be the basis of a fruit
fly quarantine treatment for West African mangoes produced in Burkina Faso. All of the
larvae extracted from the fruits treated at 46.5 °C and 51.0 °C were dead, while, in fruit
treated at 42.0 °C, only about one-third of the larvae extracted were dead.