Abstract
Biological control agents such as baculovirus insecticides have many attributes which make them attractive alternatives to synthetic chemical pesticides. However, there have been several economic and agronomic barriers to their widespread use. Among the obstacles to commercialization of viral insecticides have been high production costs, the lack of efficacious formulation and application technologies, and a slow speed of action. Biotechnology has contributed several advances toward overcoming these obstacles. The high cost ofin vivo production can be reduced significantly using a newly developed high-density rearing system termed HeRD. The HeRD technology can be used to rear many different species of lepidopterous larvae for production of viral insecticides, as hosts for parasitoid production, or for sterile-male release programs. Using this technology, the baculovirus production costs are equivalent to sprayable Bt toxins. The field efficacy of viral pesticides and other biological control agents requires cost effective, biologically based formulation and application technologies. Based on current field efficacy evaluations of baculovirus pesticides, formulation/application technologies must be improved for viral pesticides to compete effectively and consistently in most pesticide markets.
Through recombinant DNA technology, it is now possible to insert foreign pesticidal genes into viral pesticides, resulting in faster time to death or, more importantly, time to cessation of feeding of the target pests. However, the commercial use of recombinant pesticides has raised several potential environmental issues, including possible effects on non-target organisms, ecological interactions, mitigation and genetic stability. Genetic strategies have been developed to mitigate most of the potential problems associated with recombinant baculovirus pesticides. Five field tests have been conducted in the U.S. to evaluate these strategies. The laboratory and field results illustrate that the genetic strategies employed ensure environmental safety while also reducing production costs.
Résumé
Les agents de lutte biologique comme les insecticides à base de baculovirus présentent beaucoup de qualités qui en font d’intéressantes alternatives aux pesticides chimiques de synthèse. Leur emploi à vaste échelle est toutefois contrarié par des questions d’ordre aussi bien économique qu’agronomique. Parmi les obstacles à la commercialisation d’insecticides viraux, il faut citer les coûts élevés de production, le manque d’efficacité des techniques de formulation et d’application, et la vitesse réduite de leur action. Des avancées biotechnologiques récentes permettent maintenant de surmonter ces obstacles. Ainsi, le coût élevé de la production in vivo peut être considérablement réduit par l’utilisation d’un nouveau système d’élevage à haute densité appelé HeRD. La technique HeRD permet d’élever en masse les chenilles de diverses espèces de lépidoptères en vue de la production d’insecticides viraux, comme hôtes pour la production de parasitoïdes, ou dans le cadre de programmes de lachers de mâles stériles. Grâce à cette technique la production de baculovirus peut s’effectuer à un coût comparable à celui des toxines de B.t. L’efficacité au champ des pesticides viraux et autres agents de lutte biologique requiert cependant des biotechnologies adéquates en termes de formulation et d’application. A évaluer au champ l’efficacité des pratiques actuelles, on s’aperçoit en effet que ces technologies devraient être nettement améliorées afin de rendre les préparations à base de baculovirus compétitives vis-à-vis de la plupart des pesticides actuellement commercialisés.
Les technologies basées sur l’ADN recombinant permettent aujourd’hui d’insérer des gènes d’origine étrangère dans des pesticides viraux, dans le but de déterminer une mortalité plus rapide des nuisibles-cibles, ou ce qui est préférable, une cessation accélérée de leur activité alimentaire. L’utilisation commerciale de pesticides recombinants soulève toutefois la question des risques potentiels pour l’environnement, au sujet notamment des interactions écologiques, de leur effet possible sur des organismes non-cibles, de leur capacité de diffusion et de leur stabilité génétique. Des stratégies génétiques ont été développées afin de diminuer les problèmes associés aux pesticides à base de baculovirus recombinants. Cinq essais de plein champ ont porté sur l’évaluation de ces stratégies aux Etats-Unis. Les résultats obtenus aussi bien au champ qu’en laboratoire montrent que les stratégies génétiques utilisées sont de nature à garantir la sécurité de l’environnement tout en réduisant les cooûts de production
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Wood, H.A., Hughes, P.R. Recombinant viral insecticides: Delivery of environmentally safe and cost-effective products. Entomophaga 41, 361–373 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02765790
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02765790