SAG began a fruit fly eradication campaign in Chimbarongo – 2024-05-06 04:31:18

Intense work by a hundred officials in a 27-kilometer perimeter from where the specimens were found in the commune of Chimbarongo will allow the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG) to eradicate traces of the fruit fly found in the city of wicker

This was announced by the authorities who, last Friday, met at a technical table with representatives from O’Higgins and Maule to begin this eradication campaign, considering that the fruit fly is the main enemy of the national exports.

In that sense, José Guajardo, national director of the SAG, expressed that “the permanent work of the SAG has allowed us, in this surveillance, to quickly detect these specimens and control the situation. Today the resources are available in this campaign, more than 100 people will be hired for this. “The sector has been cleaned to eliminate larvae.”

Furthermore, he indicated that “we are sure that it will be a successful campaign, the community understands what we are doing. “This fly damages the fruit, and damages our exports.”

Along with this, he warned that “the fly does not arrive by flying, it arrives through the consumption of fruits that are not certified. We are constantly observing income from fruit that is not authorized. There are fruit flies in Argentina, Peru and Bolivia. “With the work of the SAG, Chile has been prevented from having this fly.”

Incidentally, Guajardo indicated that in this campaign “the regulated area is 27.2 kilometers, that is why we entered the Maule region, up to Rauco and Curicó,” and that “every time a fly has been captured, The controls have been carried out and that allows the world to recognize us as free of the fly.”

For his part, the Seremi of Agriculture, Cristian Silva, pointed out that “there will be more than 100 officials touring this perimeter, doing the necessary surveys to eradicate this fly. There are nearly 500 million pesos that the government has allocated for this work.”

COLLABORATIVE WORK

From the SAG, they called for the collaboration of citizens after the start of the fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata) eradication campaign, precisely after the detection of two specimens, a male and a female, in the urban sector. from Chimbarongo.

“The detections were made within the surveillance area established after the simple capture of a fruit fly specimen at the beginning of April in Chimbarongo. These new captures were achieved as a result of the traps installed for this surveillance. “Chile has been a fruit fly-free country since 1995 and this campaign does not make us lose that privileged condition, but we always have to act in a timely manner and that is what we are doing, by detecting its early presence and initiating immediate actions,” he said. regional director of SAG, Eric Guital Alarcón.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Chimbarongo, Marco Contreras, expressed that “we have expressed all our willingness to eradicate this pest as soon as possible.” In turn, he asked the community to open the doors to the SAG for the physical verification of the fruit trees. “The officials will always be identified and these are control activities that have no cost to the community,” he concluded.

Regarding the work to be done, it was stated that it is divided into different areas. One of them includes a radius of 200 meters around the focus, which involves the total unloading of fruits from the trees, soil treatment, application of chemical products that are harmless to people and pets, as well as cleaning the place. All of this work aims to eliminate the outbreak and possible larval foci, preventing the spread of the pest to other areas. In addition, in a radius of 7.2 kilometers, the SAG reinforces surveillance with the installation of traps and a quarantine area is created, in which there is restriction on the movement of fruit from the fruit trees that are within this radius. in order to prevent the eventual transfer of fruit fly specimens and/or their larvae to other sectors.

It is important to note that the fruit fly does not cause harm to people or animals, but it makes the marketing of fruit products for export difficult due to the repercussions that this outbreak could have on foreign markets, its favorite hosts being figs, peaches, apricots. , apple trees, quince trees, pear trees, orange trees and tangerines, among others.