December 1996, Volume 17 No. 6

General News

BNI Editor Retires

David Girling, who has had editorial responsibility for Biocontrol News and Information since it began publication in 1979, has retired from IIBC. He joined the Institute in 1969 and worked on biological control projects in Uganda, Switzerland and Ghana before becoming Information Officer, with production of BNI as one of his main tasks.

BNI was the first of CABI's News and Information journals, an experiment in combining the traditional abstract journal with news and reviews of the subject area. A recent survey has shown that this is a popular "hybridization" with readers, most of whom would like to see more news and reviews.

The new editor-in-chief will be Dr Jeff Waage, Director of IIBC, backed by an international editorial committee.

BNI Online

From the beginning of 1997 BNI will be available to subscribers online. CAB INTERNATIONAL is launching a new World Wide Web service called CABWeb®®. The first phase is called PEST CABWeb®® and will provide online access to six of CABI's pest management journals at no additional charge to current subscribers. Anyone at an institution which has a valid subscription to any of the journals will be entitled to register for free online access to the same title(s). For further details on how to register, contact CABI at its UK or North American offices.

Engineered Cotton Failure

The first large scale use of a crop genetically engineered to express Bacillus thuringiensis toxins has run into problems. Around 13% of the cotton area in the southern USA was planted this year with Monsanto's Bollgard cotton, which should protect the plants from lepidopterous larvae such as cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa zea), tobacco budworm (Heliothis virescens) and pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella). However, thousands of hectares of cotton in Texas became infested with Helicoverpa zea.

This led to the temporary suspension of shares in the Monsanto subsidiary that markets Bollgard on the New York stock exchange, to calls for the Environmental Protection Agency to suspend the registration of the sale of Bt cotton, and to some farmers in other states spraying their Bt cotton as a precaution.

The reason for the failure to control H. zea is under investigation; it may be that the surviving larvae are resistant to B. thuringiensis, or that not all the seed sold as Bt cotton was the genuine product, or even that the severe drought in Texas has limited the effect of the toxins in the plants. Monsanto has dismissed these explanations, attributing the damage to unusually high pest populations this season, so that the 95% control given by the Bt toxins in Bollgard still leaves enough larvae to exceed economic thresholds.

Water Hyacinth Bug

A new natural enemy of the aquatic weed Eichhornia crassipes was released in South Africa earlier this year to add to the reduction already provided by a suite of biological control agents. The mirid Eccritotarsus catarinensis was discovered in Brazil by Plant Protection Research Institute scientists in 1989 and has been undergoing stringent host specificity tests under quarantine. Its biological characteristics include rapid reproduction, long lived adults, gregarious feeding and a high individual feeding rate that severely damages the host plant. It is hoped that it will make a significant contribution to the pressure on the weed.

Pink Mealybug Threatens USA

The US Department of Agriculture is developing a biological control plan for an invasion of the pink hibiscus mealybug (Maconellicoccus hirsutus), a polyphagous agricultural pest threatening the US east coast from its current position in the Caribbean. The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service anticipates that the insect may reach Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and possibly Florida within the next 12 months. In response to this threat, APHIS and the USDA's Agricultural Research Service have joined with several Caribbean countries to develop a biological control programme to regulate the mealybug below an economic injury level.

The pink hibiscus mealybug occurs in most tropical areas of the world, including Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Australia and Oceania. It arrived in Grenada, Trinidad, and St Kitts in the early 1990's and is considered a very serious plant pest, disrupting agricultural trade and attacking more than 200 genera of plants. IIBC, supported by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and in collaboration with Caribbean government scientists, began a biological control programme with the release of the oriental encyrtid parasitoid Anagyrus kamali in Grenada in October 1995.

Anticipating the probable arrival of M. hirsutus in the United States, the USDA has set up a "beachhead" in St Kitts, sending a specialist team to the island to develop an insectary so that they can rear exotic natural enemies of the mealybug. They have already begun rearing and releasing A. kamali (supplied by IIBC) on the island.

Because there are 21 different species of parasitoids that are reported to feed on this mealybug, a biological control programme has a good chance of success. Hawaii has been infested with M. hirsutus since 1984, but does not have a problem because at least two parasitoids are attacking the pest. Cooperators at the University of Hawaii are collecting and shipping parasitoids, via quarantine in the USA, for rearing in the Caribbean, and the ARS is also searching worldwide for other exotic enemies of the mealybug.

Rabbit Virus Release

The Australian federal government has given the go ahead to release the rabbit haemorrhagic virus in all states except Tasmania. This shortens the delay ordered earlier this year (see BNI 17(3) 45N) to allow more safety tests on native wildlife. Tests on further species, using very high doses of virus, bring the total number of wild and domestic animals tested to 33, all without any sign of disease. Blood tests on workers exposed to the virus have not revealed any evidence of antibody development.

Infected rabbits will be released in nearly 300 sites throughout mainland Australia, covering every type of climate. This will maximise its impact and enable scientists to monitor its behaviour under different conditions. Warrens will also be ripped open after the virus has spread throughout a population, as 5-10% of rabbits are expected to survive. This was not done systematically when the myxoma virus was released in the 1950s, and is thought to be one of the reasons why rabbits survived that disease.

The controversy that the programme has generated (see BNI 17(1) 1N) has not gone away completely. Some scientists in the USA have pointed out that other caliciviruses have jumped species in the past. They argue that the rabbit virus could do the same, especially if it mutates. Australian scientists dismiss this, pointing out that the rabbit virus occurs naturally in many other countries and has not jumped species anywhere else.

Spruce Budworm Virus

Scientists in Quebec have isolated a granulosis virus from Choristoneura fumiferana that they believe could provide a cheap and effective alternative to Bacillus thuringiensis as a microbial pesticide against the spruce budworm in Canada. The virus was found near Bonaventure, in the southern part of the Gaspé Peninsula, and is called GV Bonaventure. Production and application costs could be lower than those for Bt, as the required dose per hectare is lower. A product is expected to be registered within the next two years.

Company News

Mycogen has decided to discontinue research into new biopesticides so that it can concentrate financial resources on existing products and those that are close to commercialisation. The company has several Bacillus thuringiensis-based pesticides registered in the USA and others ready for registration during the next year. The company's laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, is to close, and there will also be job losses at the San Diego headquarters.

Biosys, now based in Columbia, Maryland, is expanding its business in India, which is the world's third largest user of insecticides. The company plans to sell a number of products, including nematode- and virus-based microbial biopesticides, and has set up a local subsidiary. The founder of the company, Dr Venkat Sohoni, who is now managing director of Hindustan Ciba-Geigy, will act as a consultant to Biosys in India.

Japan Tobacco has announced the development of two new mycoherbicides. Exserohilum monoceras controls Echinochloa spp. in rice fields and can be applied as a granular formulation onto the water surface. Epicoccosorus nematosorus is aimed at another important weed of rice, Eleocharis koruguwai, which is difficult to control with conventional herbicides once flowering begins. The company's first mycoherbicide, Xanthomonas campestris pv. poae, for use on golf course turf, is being launched in Japan and the USA in early 1997.