16AGRITECHCAT5: A Novel Biopesticide Formulation Technology for Major Lepidopteran Crop Pests

Increasing environmental concerns and the legislation that arises from these is currently seriously restricting the use of chemical pesticides in Europe and globally, thus creating an urgent need for safe new, effective, but environmentally-acceptable, alternatives for agricultural producers. One promising alternative approach for protecting crops against insect pests is the use of biological control agents or biopesticides, including products based on the natural infectious diseases of insects. These are environmentally-friendly because they are affect only target pests and are safe to humans, livestock and beneficial insects such as pollinators. However, existing formulations of biopesticides have a number of significant shortcomings. Specifically the shorter shelf life of biopesticides than conventional pesticides and most importantly shorter persistence once applied to crops. The shorter crop persistence is mainly a result of the shorter UV stability of biopesticides. These constraints severely limit current usefulness of otherwise highly pathogenic insect disease agents which mean that they are not as commonly used as most chemical pesticides.

This project aims to develop an innovative approach to improve the shelf-life, field-persistence, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of viral biopesticides against the moth caterpillars that damage crops. It will build on tried-and-tested Entostat technology to better protect the biopesticide whilst in storage or on the crop, whilst improving its capacity to kill pest insects. Proof of concept work has already shown that Entostat encapsulation does not interfere with virus infectivity and are thus compatible with these biopesticides. In addition, the project will determine if co-formulating specific UV-blockers with the Entostat waxes, so that they are bound around active particles, will improve the biopesticides UV stability, substantially extending persistence in the field and increasing intervals between applications. This technology although being developed for insect virus biopesticides, could have applications for other groups of biopesticides such as bacterial products which are currently the most widely used group of biopesticides. These innovations could lower the costs of pest control using biopesticides and substantially increase product attractiveness to users revolutionising the crop protection landscape.

Increasing environmental concerns and the legislation that arises from these is currently seriously restricting the use of chemical pesticides in Europe and globally, thus creating an urgent need for safe new, effective, but environmentally-acceptable, alternatives for agricultural producers. One promising alternative approach for protecting crops against insect pests is the use of biological control agents or biopesticides, including products based on the natural infectious diseases of insects. These are environmentally-friendly because they are affect only target pests and are safe to humans, livestock and beneficial insects such as pollinators. However, existing formulations of biopesticides have a number of significant shortcomings. Specifically the shorter shelf life of biopesticides than conventional pesticides and most importantly shorter persistence once applied to crops. The shorter crop persistence is mainly a result of the shorter UV stability of biopesticides. These constraints severely limit current usefulness of otherwise highly pathogenic insect disease agents which mean that they are not as commonly used as most chemical pesticides. This project aims to develop an innovative approach to improve the shelf-life, field-persistence, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of viral biopesticides against the moth caterpillars that damage crops. It will build on tried-and-tested Entostat technology to better protect the biopesticide whilst in storage or on the crop, whilst improving its capacity to kill pest insects. Proof of concept work has already shown that Entostat encapsulation does not interfere with virus infectivity and are thus compatible with these biopesticides. In addition, the project will determine if co-formulating specific UV-blockers with the Entostat waxes, so that they are bound around active particles, will improve the biopesticides UV stability, substantially extending persistence in the field and increasing intervals between applications.

In order to cope with a rising human population, we must enhance global food security and reduce food crop losses. Thus, this proposal aims to address a key issue currently facing primary crop production in the UK, Europe and globally - the need for new effective, safe and sustainable pest control.

In the UK and Europe, environmental concern about the use of chemical pesticides is driving a serious reduction in the number of pest control active ingredients. As a result, the agricultural sector is faced with a real challenge of how to maintain and increase food production with a vastly reduced arsenal of crop protection agents. In the last 20 years, for example, the number of chemical active ingredients allowed in crop protection fell from 1000 to 330, and this is likely to continue, as illustrated by the recent EU neonicotinoid moratorium.

This project seeks to develop novel environmentally-acceptable crop protection products that can replace the lost chemical insecticides and enhance UK and European competitiveness. The biological pesticide formulation proposed here will boost biological pest control, an already rapidly expanding sector of the crop protection market, better enabling biological crop protection products to replace the many de-registered chemicals. Biological pesticides, derived from natural pathogens of insect crop pests, are a publically acceptable group of technologies that could replace chemical pesticides. These are much cheaper to develop than either new chemicals or GM plants, and there has been a rapid growth in the market in the last decade. These biological agents are very specific pathogens of insect pest species, and major meta-studies commissioned by the EU and OECD have identified no adverse environmental issues with groups such as the insect baculoviruses, which we focus on here, and have approved their use in crop protection. However issues of the limited shelf life of current formulations and the short persistence times of the active ingredients once applied to crops restrict their cost effectiveness and discourage wider use by growers even if suitable alternative products to chemical pesticides exist.

The main goal of our study is to develop novel technology to make these biopesticides work better and to be more cost-effective, so promoting their greater use in improving crop protection and food security. By combining the biopesticide active ingredients (baculoviruses) with Entostat waxes, we aim to enhance field efficacy and increase persistence over existing formulations, so reducing the cost of using biopesticides and increasing their attractiveness to users, so making them a more viable replacement for disappearing chemical pesticides. This proof of concept project, by determining that insect viruses can be effectively encapsulated with Entostat waxes and co-formulated with other chemicals such as UV blockers, opens a whole new avenue of research on biopesticide product development that could be applied to improving the acceptability and cost-effectiveness of a wide range of biopesticides both currently used and under development.

Thus, the project has potential impact in: (i) reducing the chemical burden on the landscape, by replacing chemical pesticides with safer biological ones, so protecting ecosystem service provision; (ii) improving the cost-effectiveness of existing biological pesticides, so making crop protection more efficient in terms of labour and other inputs; (iii) through the replacement of banned chemical pesticides with biological agents, it will safeguard a range of agricultural crop systems currently struggling to survive increased pest threats; (iv) enhancing the UK economy by producing a commercial product that, if successful, is likely to generate significant income via licensing agreements and other commercial routes; and (v) expanding the UK commercial pesticide formulation sector into new product ranges.