Postharvest diseases management of citrus in Italy: current status and new strategies
Lanza G, di Martino Alippo E, Strano MC, Calandra M, Aloisi V and Privitera D
Program and Abstracts, 11th International Citrus Congress (ISC Congress), 26-20 October 2008, Wuhan, China. 333 pages.
2008
บทคัดย่อ
Postharvest diseases management of citrus in Italy: current status and new strategies
The most common and serious diseases which affect citrus fruit in Italy, after harvest, are green and blue mould, incited respectively by Penicillium digitatum Sacc. and italicum Weh. Current post-harvest decay control strategies, at practical level, are based on chemical fungicides. The use of chemical fungicides for postharvest disease control in under close scrutiny, due to growing consumer concern about pesticide residues, along with the development of pathogen resistance to approved pesticides. Therefore, there is an emerging interest to develop “safer” alternative measures for decay control. This paper addresses an overview on the effectiveness of some of the novel approaches emerging in this area, with special emphasis on our Institute’s findings. The enhancement of host defense mechanisms at the wound site, holding fruit attemperatures and humidity conducive to wound healing and detrimental to the pathogen development (curing), the utilization of hot water treatments (hot water dipping and short hot water brushing), the applications of the generally recognized as safe compounds (GRAS), applied in cleaning operations, biocontrol yeasts, the new “reduced-risk” fungicide fludioxonil, and the advantages of integrated strategies (IPM) to improve disease control, have been evaluated onlemon and orange fruit. Potential benefits, disadvantages and commercial feasibility of these new approaches will be discussed.