Foreign Exploration For Candidate Biological Control Agents: 75 Years Of Partnership Between Canada And CABI
04 November 2024, Canada: CABI has highlighted 75 years of working in partnership to research biological solutions to fight a range of invasive insect pests and weeds in Canada at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of Canada and the Entomological Society of Quebec.
The meeting theme, ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – A Matter of Perspective’ invited participants to explore and reconsider their perceptions and viewpoints and the ease with which they sometimes make hasty judgments when dealing with insects.
The entire spectrum of entomology was presented in 4 plenary talks, 3 student showcases, 175 oral presentations and 60 scientific posters.
New CABI book published
Dr Tim Haye, CABI’s Head of Arthropod Biological Control, gave the plenary talk of the symposium ‘Biological Control Programmes in Canada’, organized by Meghan Vankosky and Véronique Martel.
This symposium was intended to emphasise the publication of CABI’s new book ‘Biological Control Programmes in Canada, 2013 -2023’, edited by the symposium’s organizers. The book includes 21 chapters written or co-written by CABI scientists and is the 6th volume of a series that dates to 1910. In the symposium, 15 chapters of the new book were presented by authors from across Canada.
In his plenary talk, co-authored by Dr Tara Gariepy, Research Scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Dr Haye, focused on the collaboration between the Swiss CABI centre with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), the Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Forest Service, provincial governments, and university laboratories, to undertake classical biological control research to combat harmful pests.
Underpinning the relationship between Canada and CABI’s Swiss centre, Dr Haye also highlighted how, between 1995 and 2024, 124 students from 25 Canadian universities have gained internships in biological control at CABI’s Swiss Centre in Delémont.
In addition, CABI has also worked with the Biology Co-operative Education and Career Services of the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University, University of Guelph, and Thompson Rivers University, giving young students the opportunity to gain practical experience in biological control projects.
During 1996 and 2024, CABI’s scientific output in partnership with Canadian scientists has seen 110 joint peer-reviewed papers published – in journals such as Biocontrol, Biological Invasions and Bioscience, as well as 55 book chapters in seven different books.
Biocontrol is environmentally friendly, cost-effective and sustainable
Since many invasive species in Canada originate in Europe, it is necessary that research activities in support of the control of these species are conducted in the countries of origin where potential natural enemies for their control exist.
Given the relatively high cost of attempting to conduct this work ‘in house’ through research missions or establishment of a research facility presence in Europe, Canada and CABI’s Swiss centre started their scientific partnership 75 years ago.
In addition, the MARA-CABI Joint Laboratory in Beijing, which opened in 2008, gives researchers in Canada the opportunity to study natural enemies in Asia, where many pests and weeds invasive in Canada originate from.
Invasive weeds and pests can pose serious threats to native species, ecosystems, human health and many sectors of the economy such as agriculture, forestry and tourism.
Classical biological control is an environmentally friendly, cost-effective and sustainable way of managing invasive species and has been used effectively for more than 100 years.
This involves introducing a host-specific natural enemy of the non-native pest or weed to invaded areas in Canada without causing any other adverse effects to the ecosystem
Collaboration is vital for the success of biological control programmes
In his presentation, Dr Haye presented examples of successful classical biological control of invasive weeds and pests in North America. For example, releases of the parasitic wasp Tetrastichus setifer from 2010 onwards provided excellent control of the Lily Leaf Beetle in Canada, imposing parasitism rates of up to 87.5 percent.
CABI also has seen a steady development of weed biological control agents over the years with a total of 51 agents released over the past 60 years. Several of these have been outstanding successes.
One recent success story is the release of two moth species against common reed, Phragmites. The collaboration of AAFC, University of Toronto and CABI has seen over 30,000 individual biocontrol agents released in Ontario alone. Results are very promising with survival of populations and damage at the release points observed at over 90% of the sites.
Dr Haye said, “Collaboration with Canadian partners is vital for the success of biological control programmes in Canada and is important to ensure continuity for long-term projects on invasive species management.”
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