Evaluation of trial shipments of fumigated and radiation disinfected dates from Iraq to Poland

Packed dried dates were treated in Iraq with (a) methyl bromide, (b) 0.715 kGy of gamma radiation, or (c) 0.455 kGy of gamma radiation + 75 h at 40 C, and sent by air to Warsaw, Poland, for evaluation of disinfestation efficiency of the quarantine treatments. Fumigation with methyl bromide was more effective method of disinfestation than gamma radiation, if induced sterility is not taken into consideration. If the criterion used to determine quarantine security was changed from 100% mortality to ''the inability to produce viable offspring'' then the treatments with gamma radiation provide the quarantine security. (author)