title: Safety and acquisition potential of Metarhizium anisopliae in entomovectoring with bumble bees, Bombus terrestris.
abstract: In the context of integrated pest management with biological control and reduced pesticide use, dissemination of entomopathogenic fungi with insects has the potency to protect crops and specifically their flowers against pests and diseases. But before implementation of such entomovectoring system, a measurement of risks of the microbial biocontrol agent toward the vectoring insect is crucial. The essential contributions of this project are that 1) exposure of bumble bees, Bombus terrestris (L.) to powder containing 10(7) spores of the commercial biocontrol agent Metarhizium anisopliae strain F52 (Biol020) per gram, was safe; and 2) that when bumble bees had walked through this spore concentration (10(7) spores per gram) in a dispenser, their body carried 9.3 +/- 1 x 10(6) spores/bumble bee, and this was still 2.6 10(6) spores after a flight of 60 s, representing the average time to fly from the dispenser to the crop flowers. 3) In contrast, a 100-fold higher spore concentration (10(9) spores per gram powder) was highly toxic and the acquisition on the bumble bee body was only 2.5 times higher. Based on these data, future studies can start investigating the protection efficacy of this entomovector system with M. anisopliae and bumble bees without harming the vector and with a loading of the vector considered enough to obtain a good inoculation into and protection of the flowers.
authors: Department of Crop Protection, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. guy.smagghe@ugent.be
authors: Guy
authors: G
authors: Smagghe
authors: Laurens
authors: L
authors: De Meyer
authors: Ivan
authors: I
authors: Meeus
authors: Veerle
authors: V
authors: Mommaerts
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000382:microbiology*; D007303:Insect Vectors; D052981:Metarhizium / Q000502:physiology*; D010572:Pest Control, Biological