Cross infestation

Contamination of stored grain with insects, insect fragments, fungi, and mycotoxins is a major concern of the grain industry. The stored-grain insects affect the grains not only quantitatively but also qualitatively.

Infestation is the presence of a large number of pest organisms in an area or field, on the surface of a host or anything that might contact a host, or in the soil. Cross infestation mean that the pest moved across from one product parcel to another.

Stored grains are ravaged by a number of insect pests. The stored grain pests infest grains to fulfill their food and shelter requirements resulting in qualitative as well as quantitative losses.

Some insect pests initiate damage at the ripening stage of crops and continue during storage. Major sources of infestations are old bags, storage structure, old containers, and cross over infestation.

Post-harvest losses caused by insects, mites, rodents and microbes in stored grains have been estimated at 10 % throughout the world. These losses have been reported around 1 % and 10–30 % in developed and developing nations respectively.
Cross infestation