Basic and applied research: Baculovirus

Baculoviruses are pathogens of many insect species that are major agricultural and forest pests. They have been studied for at least 100 years for their potential as biological control agents and a significant body of knowledge about them has been developed. The taxonomy, morphology, pathology, and ecology of baculoviruses are briefly presented here and their significance for the use of baculoviruses as microbial control agents discussed. The use of baculoviruses for crop protection in specific cropping systems and case studies of the product development are used to illustrate the constraints and opportunities for using baculoviruses in crop protection. Existing barriers to wider use of baculoviruses, such as the relatively slow speed of kill compared with most chemical pesticides, the more limited host range, the shorter environmental persistence, the poorer performance on some crops, and reliability issues are explored, and future research priorities to overcome these concerns as well as the commercial and regulatory landscape around scaling up the use of baculovirus products are presented