Biocomes: new biological products for sustainable farming and forestry

The growing interest in biological control has been reflected during last decades in a big number of scientific publications, books and symposia. However, biocontrol commercial application at a European level is limited and biological control products are not currently available for the control of i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Acta horticulturae Vol. 1144; no. 1144; pp. 469 - 472
Main Authors:	Teixidó, N., De Cal, A.L., Usall, J., Guijarro, B., Larena, I., Torres, R., Abadias, M., Köhl, J.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	01-01-2016
Subjects:	Bioint Entomology & Disease Management PRI Bioint Entomology & Disease Management
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	The growing interest in biological control has been reflected during last decades in a big number of scientific publications, books and symposia. However, biocontrol commercial application at a European level is limited and biological control products are not currently available for the control of important pests and diseases that cause high economic losses. The objective of the European project BIOCOMES is to develop 11 new biocontrol products to control key pests and diseases present in agricultural and forestry crops, as a suitable and environmental-friendly alternative strategy to chemical products. BIOCOMES includes 13 private companies (most of them SEMs) and 14 research centres from 14 different countries, working together to develop tools and give solutions to the Integrated Pest Management in Europe. Main targeted pests and diseases are: gypsy moth and large pine weevil in forestry, tomato leaf miner, potato moths, whitefly in vegetables, aphids in fruit tree crops, cabbage moth, brown rot in stone fruit, fungal root diseases in nurseries, Fusarium in cereals, soil-borne Verticillium wilt in Brassica and powdery mildew in cereals. Developed biocontrol products are parasitoids, entomopathogenic nematodes, viruses, bacteria and fungi, and at the end of the project, most of them will be at a stage close to market implementation. Brown rot in stone fruit is the only postharvest disease studied in BIOCOMES and the objective is to complete the development of the biocontrol agents Penicillium frequentans 909 (INIA) and Bacillus subtilis CPA-8 (IRTA) to obtain products that provide an effective strategy to control brown rot in stone fruit production.
ISSN:	0567-7572 2406-6168
DOI:	10.17660/ActaHortic.2016.1144.70