Baculoviruses for insect pest control: safety considerations

Abstract

The control of insect pests by means other than chemical pesticides is rapidly becoming a necessity. While the complete replacement of chemicals is not envisaged, other methods to be used alone or in conjunction with chemical control agents must be developed. It is however, necessay to have the assurance that these alternative methods are safe as well as efficacious, and an accurate prediction of possible adverse effects must be possible. These alternate control methods cover a multitude of materials, including microorganisms, pheromones, and growth regulators. Safety considerations will be different for most of them. Even among the microorganisms, more specifically the insect viruses, different agents will be judged by a variety of criteria. The baculoviruses (nuclear polyhedrosis and granulosis viruses) have been mentioned repeatedly as having a high potential for becoming safe and useful pest control agents. Therefore, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) decided to scrutinize the questions related to the safety of baculoviruses, assess the present state of knowledge, and provide guidance for future research. Under the direction of officials of the EPA and USDA, a working symposium on the safety considerations for the use of nuclear polyhedrosis and granulosis viruses was convened in Washington, D.C., on 15-18 April 1974. The meeting brought together experts in the area of baculovirus research and related fields, such vertebrate virology and epidemiology from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the World Health Organization. The objectives of the conference were to discuss the problems, develop the future course of action, and give the federal agencies and industry guidance for developing, regulating, and registering baculovirus insect pest control agents. The proceedings of the symposium are presented in this volume. In the various parts of the book the principal concepts, which should be followed to predict the safety of baculovirus pest control agents, are addressed and discussed and recommendations for the type of study to predict successfully the safety of useful and efficacious baculovirus insect control agents, are given. All contributed papers have been updated to the state of knowledge of May 1975.