Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences
Open Access
ISSN: 2155-9600
+32 25889658
ISSN: 2155-9600
+32 25889658
G Membang, R Hanna and Z Ambang
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Cameroon
University of Yaound���© I, Cameroon
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Nutr Food Sci
In sub-Saharan Africa where banana and plantain play a vital role in food safety of the populations, the challenge is to increase production using preferably non-harmful strategies as far as environment and human health is concerned. To achieve this goal, management of insect�¢����s pest of these crops such as banana weevil, the most severe pest is necessary. In the context of biological control, Cameroonian isolates of Beauveria and Metarhizium have proven their virulence against banana weevil C. sordidus but no information exist on their epizootic ability. Our study therefore presents infective potentials of four Cameroonian isolates in epizootical perspectives. Laboratory bioassays were carried out by immersion of adult weevils in conidial suspension 3.2 x108 conidia mL-1 in other to evaluate the efficacy of Cameroonian isolates of B. bassiana (BIITAC6.2.2, BIITAC10.3.3) and M. anisopliae (MIITAC11.3.4 and MIITAC6.2.2). The results obtained showed that all tested isolates were pathogenic to weevils, causing mortality rate up to 96%. The lowest value of LT50 and LT90 were respectively 3.49 and 16.67 days for B. bassiana BIITAC6.2.2. Living weevils were found to be effective carriers of inoculum in the view of disease symptom appearance on treated insect and healthy ones. In addition, conidia production per cadaver was similar among isolates except BIITAC6.2.2 which showed in parallel highest conidia yield on insect (5.4x1010 conidia/ml) and the best transmitting performance of disease (mortality of untreated>52% at vector ratio 50%). These results show that indigenous strains of M. anisopliae and B. bassiana are potentials bio-controls agents that may help to improve the use of a biological control approach based in attraction-infection traps to control banana weevil, C. sordidus in Cameroonian banana plantations.
Email: membangg@yaho.com