MEETING SUMMARY

After successful working sessions, the objective of the American Fruit Fly Congress and 10th Meeting of the Working Group on Fruit Flies of the Western Hemisphere (TWWH), held in virtual way, from November 2 to 6, 2020, with the slogan “Sharing global solutions for the management of fruit flies” was achieved. We have the satisfaction of the duty fulfilled not only due to the outstanding academic agenda and the number of attendees, but especially for having been able to have the meeting in the midst of the situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The congress agenda covered several thematic axes in basic and applied research, including management activities in wide areas, action programs and control methods (such as the Sterile Insect Technique), aspects of biology, surveillance and phytosanitary regulation, status of the host condition of some agricultural species, issues related to ecology, behavior, genetics, taxonomy and morphology, quarantine issues and post-harvest treatments, as well as socio-economic aspects. Recent advances in research, technological development and innovation for the management of fruit flies of the Tephritidae family have been discussed and, in turn, it has been possible to have a shared vision of where these programs should focus. This is of singular importance to the extent that the world has changed the ways of seeing, assuming and doing things as a result of this pandemic. In short: the need to innovate in techniques, processes, methodologies, organization; collaboration and the need to strength it was evident.

It was also possible to advertise, with more emphasis than in the past, how team work, knowledge networks, public-private alliances and international cooperation are essential for the successful development of fruit fly management programs. For Colombia, as the virtual host country, the most important achievement will be demonstrated in the strengthening of research networks between local researchers and academics from the international fruit fly community.

Holding our meeting in 2020 was our best way to support the celebration of the International Year of Plant Health. This was evidenced by the different lectures and papers presented, all of them aimed to protect productive systems, in our case fruit production. We also promoted FAO institutional videos to emphasize phytosanitary awareness. We have no doubt that the relevance of plants for life and how fundamental it is to work in plant health to protect them was the key message to take home.

We expect to have also achieved the objective of having you feel in Colombia. This was the reason to have virtual technical tours, in which you learnt about the six main agricultural export products of Colombia.

Now, we provide some data in support of our words:

Almost 1800 people registered for the Congress with a high turnout on each day of the congress, which was not below 600 people per session. People from more than 30 countries participated. 46 participants from 16 countries on other continents and 1701 participants from 25 American countries. In Colombia, 660 people participated, of which 48% were from the productive sector, 26% from the government sector and 21% from the academic and scientific area. A total of 42 oral presentations and 101 poster were presented. People had the chance to visit the Congress Hall during four weeks enabling visualizing each presentation or poster as many times as desired.

With all this, we consider, that once again, the Working Group on Fruit Flies of the Western Hemisphere had a successful meeting. It was a pleasure to share with you this wonderful and prolific week and we hope to see you in the next one.

RENEWAL OF TWWH STEERING COMMITTEE (2020-2024)

Dear Fruit Fly Community

As we do when we have our TWWH meetings, we met this year to do a balance of the outcome of the meeting, discuss possible renovation of the Steering Committee and propose possible host countries.

This year we did it virtually. We had a nice time and we all concur that the 10th TWWH meeting was a complete success with many attendees, great talks, enriching discussions and global coverage. We made it thanks to the participation of all.

As part of the achievements, we realized that we are a big community. With the on-line registration we managed to have an updated directory which we will use to disseminate information among TWWH members. Also, we learnt that virtuality can keep us connect in the years between meetings, trough social webs and virtual activities such as webinars.

We also renewed the SC. Plablo Liedo and Eric Jang decided to leave their place to new people and we are extremely grateful to all the energy, enthusiasm, spirit and hard work they gifted us during their time at the SC. We will miss you both, we will contact you for sure and we thank you sincerely for all your support and hard work. ¡Muchas gracias Pablo! Mahalo nui loa Eric!

We are also happy to inform you that we have five new members. Both Emilio Arevalo and Nelson Canal accepted to be members of the SC as a tradition to incorporate the local organizers of the past event. We also invited Alies van Sauers-Muller, Catherine Marzolf and Scott Geib. With all these new members, we expect to have a better coverage of topics and to contribute to continue making our TWWH meetings a success. Welcome Emilio, Nelson, Alies, Cathy and Scott!

Now it is the time to look forward. We faced a challenging year and we end it renewed. We wish you all the best, stay healthy and thanks for participating.

Teresa Vera Chair of the TWWH Steering Committee