AgBiTech joins global insecticide pest resistance committee

Global manufacturer of baculovirus for caterpillar control in agriculture, Australian-American AgBiTech has become the first biological insecticide company associated with IRAC, the International Insecticide Resistance Action Committee. Founded by companies in the agrochemical sector, the international body, created to study and combat the evolution of pest resistance to insecticide molecules, classified baculoviruses into a distinct group of technologies with a new mode of action (Group 31).

With this measure, baculovirus-based insecticides definitely enter the list of tools prescribed by IRAC International for use in the so-called management of insecticide resistance. According to experts, this practice, which involves applying insecticides with different modes of action in rotation, avoids losses in the agronomic effectiveness of molecules developed to control pests in the most important crops.

For AgBiTech, IRAC International's decision consolidates the technological relevance of baculoviruses in the innovation process pursued by global agriculture, in addition to attracting public attention to these new products that have proven to transfer efficiency and sustainability to agribusiness. The analysis is by the company's global president of Research and Development, Paula Marçon. “Baculoviruses result from investments in science focused on the new demands of agricultural producers”, summarizes the executive.

According to the company's general director for Latin America, Adriano Vilas Boas, IRAC's decision comes at a time when, in Brazil, AgBiTech's portfolio has surprised soybean and cotton producers due to the good performance of its products in controlling caterpillars whose pressure grows harvest after harvest, mainly Helicoverpa armigera, Chrysodeixis includens (false measurement) and the Spodoptera.

One of the company's products, the Cartugen lizardicide, achieved more than 70% better results than the producer's standard treatment in controlling pests. Spodoptera frugiperda, in 34 demonstrative areas in cotton cultivation, informs Vilas Boas. The executive also highlights that AgBiTech has the capacity to produce enough baculovirus to treat 15 million hectares of crops per year (average of 1,5 million caterpillars-day).

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The use of baculovirus for caterpillar control Spodoptera frugiperda was the subject of a recent research project by professor Celso Omoto, from the Arthropod Resistance Laboratory of the Entomology and Acarology department at Esalq-USP.

Omoto conducted laboratory trials with populations of Spodoptera frugiperda resistant to chemical insecticides and plant proteins Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) expressed in genetically modified plants. The objective, according to the researcher, was to evaluate the use of baculovirus as a tool for managing the resistance of these caterpillars to chemical insecticides and Bt proteins.

“Unlike traditional insecticides and Bt proteins, baculoviruses have a new mode of action and that is why they were classified by IRAC International in the new Group 31. Furthermore, the selectivity towards natural enemies favors their fit into integrated pest management (IPM), in which multiple management tactics result in more robust control of Spodoptera frugiperda”, reveals the researcher.

IRAC Group 31 of bioinsecticides, as explained by Paula Marçon, from AgBiTech, is made up of so-called pathogenic and specific occluded viruses, also known as viral disruptors, which act in the midgut of target caterpillars. Seven products from AgBiTech Brasil make up this list - the lizardicides Armigen, Cartugen, Chrysogen, Lepigen, Surtivo Soja, Surtivo Plus, and Surtivo Ultra.

President of the international IRAC and active in the United States, in a large company in the agricultural pesticides sector, executive Nicholas Storer highlights that the classification of insecticides by mode of action was one of the most important achievements of this technical body for the scientific community and global agribusiness . “Classification by mode of action is critical in defining strategies for using insecticides to avoid pest resistance to cutting-edge products and to promote increasingly sustainable agriculture”, concludes Storer.