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International Database on Insect Disinfestation and Sterilization (IDIDAS)

The International Database on Insect Disinfestation and Sterilization or IDIDAS provides information on the doses of radiation applied for these purposes to mites and insect pests of crops and veterinary and human importance. It includes data on both the doses required for the phytosanitary irradiation (disinfestation) of fresh and durable commodities infested with specific pests, and also the radiation doses used to induce sterility (sterilization) in target pests for the application of the sterile insect technique, inherited sterility and biological control as part of area-wide integrated pest management programmes. Information on phytosanitary irradiation and sterilization doses, where available, is shown together for each pest species. IDIDAS includes the most complete information available on major groups of insect pests such as fruit flies, mosquitoes, moths, screwworm flies, and tsetse flies, but also other insect and mite pests.

Database Searching Features

IDIDAS entities follow a formal classification of pests descending from Class through Order, Family and Genus to Species and may be accessed through a Taxonomic Tree. One or more common names is given to assist in the searching of the database, but these often differ from country to country and care must be taken to ensure that the species is correct for the locality. Taxonomic classification is constantly changing, so where it is possible to do so with certainty, previous names (synonyms) of pests actually tested are given and are searchable.

In addition to original papers, references have been drawn from abstract and other databases including those of the Federal Research Centre for Nutrition, Karlsruhe, Germany; Agricola and CABI London, and the International Nuclear Information System (INIS), Vienna. The phytosanitary irradiation data in IDIDAS have been compiled by Neil Heather with the assistance of Guy Hallman, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Weslaco, TX, USA. The sterilization data has been compiled by Abdeljelil Bakri. Both compilations have been done under the direction of the Insect Pest Control Section and the Food and Environment Protection Section of the Joint FAO/IAEA Programme of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture.

IDIDAS is a database intended to provide access to scientific and other publications which detail findings on doses required for phytosanitary irradiation of specific commodities against specific pests for specific purposes, and also for sterilizing pests for the purpose of applying the sterile insect technique, inherited sterility and biological control. The information on radiation doses is summarized in IDIDAS, even though some of the publications compiled are unreliable due to poor methodologies and lack of dosimetries. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the user to confirm the information and to verify it by way of the original publication. Whilst every effort has been made to search all relevant publications, no assurance can be given that the reference search has been exhaustive.