The Qianlong-Fawan United Daily News reported that on January 2017 the border Inspection and Quarantine Office in Beijing detected, when inspecting carriages arriving from 20 different countries and regions, a total of 47 batches of mangoes that contained the sternochetus mangifereae, which are harmful to mangoes and other organisms.
A staff member of the Inspection and Quarantine Office in Beijing tells us that the sternochetus mangifereae belongs to the family of the sternochetus frigidii. These insects are the biggest insect pest for mangoes, and are therefore the insects that are paid most attention to in the mango industry worldwide.
In all trade posts across the country the staff is now double-checking all the goods. After the larvae have incubated, the insects eat into the fruit pulp. Simultaneously they also enter into the fruit's pit, which causes it to lose its ability to sprout. Harmed pits and pulp lose their edibility and can no longer be used to grow mango plants. A critical danger is developing for the mango industry. As soon as the pest is transmitted or proliferated, the industry will suffer huge losses. The insects can also lay eggs in apples and peaches, and thus also damage these fruits.
In response, the Inspection and Quarantine Office is using an integrated method that combines people, machines and dogs. This will intensify the examinations of all travel carriages. They will also increase the frequency of inspections during the busy season for carriages and the low season for fruits. This method should also deal with international flights and data on the intercepted goods and should thus focus on both flights and inspections. Furthermore, the Office also continues to give national publicity to the safety of living organisms and stresses the importance of 'protecting all living creatures in the country and building an ecological garden together'.
Concerning the places of origin of the discovered contaminated carriages, 25 came from Africa, 12 from the Middle East, 8 from South East Asia, 1 from America and another one from Hong Kong. Among these regions, carriages coming from the United Arab Emirates possessed the majority of harmful pest insects: out of 4 flights from the UAE, 10 batches of mangoes were infected with the sternochetus mangifereae.
