You are here:
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED BACULOVIRUSES AS AGENTS FOR PEST CONTROL
Citation:
Wood, H. AND R. Granados. GENETICALLY ENGINEERED BACULOVIRUSES AS AGENTS FOR PEST CONTROL. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-93/009.
Description:
Baculoviruses constitute one of the largest and most diverse groups of insect pathogenic viruses. Following World War II, research on baculovirus intensified with the realization that these relatively virulent insect-specific viruses were widespread in nature among economically important insect pests and had potential utility in pest control programs. Numerous experimental field trials between 1950 and 1960 demonstrated the usefulness of baculoviruses as viral insecticides; however, with the concurrent advent of numerous synthetic pesticides with broad-spectrum, low cost, and high insecticidal activity, viral insecticides failed to become a commercial success. During the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, it became clear that our overdependence on chemical pesticides for pest control created numerous unacceptable agricultural, environmental, and human-health problems. hese factors, coined with the increasing difficulty of discovering new classes of chemicals, have encouraged the search for alternative methods for insect control. This paper examines the current status of pesticidal baculoviruses, their genetic improvement, and the field-release testing of modified viruses.