Tephritid workers of Europe, Africa, And Middle East (TEAM) Conference is held every four years and it normally attracts fruit fly workers from the mentioned continents either in person or virtually.
This year Symposium was held in Belle Mare, Mauritius with the theme; “Food Security: Securing our Fruits for Healthy Consumption” and was officially opened by Hon. Mahen Kumar Seeruttun, the Minister for Agro-Indusry and Food Security in Mauritius. He welcomed the participants and wished them a constructive conference experience and a stay in Mauritius.
Participants during the conference
During the Conference, 10 sessions included Oral and poster presentations. These were; (i) Biology, Behaviour, and physiology (ii) Chemical Ecology (iii) Ecology, Hosts, Distributions, and Abundance (iv) Genetics and Taxonomy (v) Traps and Attractants (vi) Conventional and Biological Control (vii) Phytosanitary Measures (viii) Management Technique: SIT (ix) Biotechnology and other control Tools (x) Area-wide/ IPM
SUA and the Royal Museum for Africa (RMCA) represented by staff and students who presented posters as follows; Bakengesa et al., Agroecological Farming Practices Against Fruit Flies in Central Eastern Tanzania, Socioeconomic Impact of Fruit Flies (Diptera, Tephritidae) On Small-Scale Agroecological Cucurbit Production in Eastern Central Tanzania and Comparing Fruit Fly Infestations in Agroecological And Conventional Cucurbit Farming. A Test Case in East-Central Tanzania. Bwire et al., Impact of Protection Practices on The Damages of Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) Infesting Cucurbit Crops in Morogoro, Tanzania. Mwatawala et al., The Dacine Fruit Flies (Diptera, Tephritidae, Dacinae) Of Tanzania. Tairo et al., First Characterization of The Microbiome of The Jointed Pumpkin Fly, Dacus Vertebratus Bezzi (Diptera: Tephritidae), Developmental Biology, and Demography of Melon Fly, Zeugodacus Cucurbitae (Coquillett) (Diptera: Tephritidae). Other posters were presented by partners from the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) that included Wouter et al., Deterministic and Stochastic Effects Drive the Larval Gut Microbial Diversity in Cucurbit Feeding Fruit Flies (Diptera, Tephritidae), and Mullens et al., Anna Karenina As A Promoter of Microbial Diversity in A Tephritid Agricultural Pest (Diptera, Tephritidae). Click here to read more about their presentations and other participants’ presentations.
The conference was a good platform to share experiences and techniques for controlling fruit flies. The participants had a chance to visit the Entomology Division of the Ministry of Agro-Industry & Food Security and learn how fruit fly management is done in Mauritius.
Special thanks to the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) (https://www.belspo.be/ ) and the Belgian Development Cooperation (https://www.enabel.be/) that supported the staff and students to attend the conference. This was possible through two projects namely Agroecological Methodology for VEGetable crops (AGROVEG) and Insects Service and Biodiversity in Agroecological Farming (ISeBAF) which are run at SUA, Tanzania, in collaboration with the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) Belgium.
