The Institute of Ecology (INECOL), in collaboration with other institutions, is working on several fronts to prevent the arrival of beetles that could affect avocado trees in Mexico.
According to the News Agency of the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT), INECOL is pursuing multiple lines of research in their laboratories to develop inoculation against this insect.
The insect pest, Xyleborus glabratus and Euwallacea fornicatus (and its mushrooms Raffaelea lauricola and Fusarium euwallacea, respectively), caused damage to plantations and whole forests in the United States, millions in losses, and a serious ecological damage.
According to CONACYT, the federal government established the Epidemiological Plant Surveillance Program through the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) and the National Health Service, Food Safety and Quality (SENASA).
The program consists of surveillance, monitoring, and early detection activities in 17 states in Mexico, to mitigate the risk of this insect's arrival into the country.
In turn, the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) is working in the forests of the northern border to determine the presence of both beetles, which have a size that is similar to the head of a pin.
The director of INECOL, Martin Aluja Schuneman Hofer, said that researchers suspected these beetles had entered the United States in 2002 through the state of Georgia, via wood packaging of Chinese imports.
"These beetles were released in the wild, moved to Carolina and headed south, where they have ravaged nearly one hundred percent of the wild avocados that are in that strip of the Atlantic, which represents a high ecological impact because migratory birds ate those fruits on their journey," he said.
Schuneman Hofer said the insects, which attack hundreds of species of trees, are present in California, Florida, and Texas, so now they are approaching Mexico.
If this pest where to reach Mexico, it would cause serious ecological damage to ecosystems, such as the tropical evergreen forests and cloud forests, which have the greatest diversity and abundance of avocado trees and shrubs, said the researcher.
In addition, he said, the cultivation of avocado, which is of great economic importance to Michoacan, Jalisco and Mexico State would be jeopardized.
Avocado crops represent 3.4 percent of the total agricultural production of the country. The state of Michoacan accounts for 84.9 percent of the total production volume, but Jalisco, Morelos, Nayarit, Guerrero, and the State of Mexico also have a broad participation.
INECOL specialists investigate what kind of trees are resistant to the insect in order to plant them in the avocado plantations, as well as what kind of plants are tolerant to the diseases caused by the pathogens.
Source: elimparcial.com