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Funded Project |
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Funding Program:
Regional IPM Competitive Grants - Northeastern |
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Project Title:
Development of a Baculovirus for Winter Moth IPM |
Project Directors (PDs):
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Lead State: MA Lead Organization: University of Massachusetts |
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Cooperating State(s):
Rhode Island |
| Research Funding: $60,000 |
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Start Date: Sep-01-2010 End Date: Aug-31-2013 |
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Pests Involved: winter moths, lepidopterans |
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Site/Commodity: forestry |
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Area of Emphasis: invasive species, biocontrol, biological control, viruses |
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Summary:
The winter moth, Operophtera brumata, is an invasive pest in a large portion of the Northeastern US including Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The expanding range and lack of adequate non-chemical control measures has led to identification of the development of integrated pest management (IPM) tactics for the control of this pest by the Pest Management Alternatives Program as a priority in the in Northeastern region. Based on successful attempts to control this insect in Nova Scotia using the tachinid parasitoid, Cyzenis albicans, we have initiated releases of this fly in Massachusetts to control winter moth. These releases have had limited success. In order to augment this biological control agent, we proposed to test the ability of the naturally occurring baculovirus O. bumata nuclelopolyhedrovirus (OpbuNPV) to become established in pest populations by introducing this agent into blueberry patches infested with winter moth. The naturally occurring biopesticide OpuNPV which we have recently found MA, is specific for O. bumata and can therefore be used with C. albicans in an IPM program to control winter moth without having a deleterious effect on other insect species including insect pollinators like honey bees.
Objectives: The development of this virus as a biological agent, specific for the winter moth that can be used as part of an integrated program to control program, will require three primary objectives: 1. Selection for virus isolates with increased virulence, faster speed of killing. 2. Improve methods for virus production and purification. 3. Field testing the efficacy of establishing the virus in winter moth populations. Proposal USDA CRIS data |
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Interim Report: Dec-14-2011 |
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Outcomes We have collected and reared winter moths in large numbers from British columbia and Massachusetts in order to start a colony for mass rearing. We have also obtained different strains of winter moth NPV from various locations around the world including Norway, British Columbia and Massachusetts.Our work was limited this past year because we had a mishap with the winter moth culture which we were depending on to produce larval winter moths for our bioassays. The cultures, which we maintain at the USDA-APHIS lab on Otis Airbase, was destroyed by a technician error. We have now re-established the culture by collecting winter moth larvae from Massachusetts and British Columbia, rearing them to the adult stage and collecting eggs from the mated females. All this takes many months to accomplish because winter moth has but one generation a year. We now have thousand of eggs and hope to resume bioassays in February (2012) |
Report Appendices
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Interim Report: Jan-02-2013 |
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Outcomes We have improved methods for scaling up rearing of winter moth larvae for virus production and bioassays. This method was used for the production of virus samples from Massachusetts, Norway, British Columbia and the United Kingdom for use in bioassays to compare their activity. Multiple sequence alignments of the polyhedrin and p74 genes of OpbuNPV isolates from Massachusetts, Norway, British Columbia and the United Kingdom were performed using MUSCLE, and then phylogenetic analysis of these sequences was performed using a maximum parsimony method with MEGA5 computer software. Both the polyhedrin and p74 sequences made distinctive clades according to their geographic collection sites. In almost every case each geographic isolate was localized in the same clade. For the polyhedrin gene the MA clade is closer to the clade of the other Norway isolates than any of the other clades. The p74 gene showed very similar trend to that observed for the polyhedrin tree. Each clade represented geologically segregated virus isolates. Interestingly, for p74 a small group of MA isolates made a clade closer to the clade of UK isolates. The results from our research have stimulated interest and collaboration with Dr. Robert Harrison of the USDA Invasive Insect Biocontrol and Behavior Lab in Beltsville MD. In collaboration with Dr. Harrison, we have begun studies to examine the susceptibility of winter moth (Operophtera brumata) to infection by several other nucleopolyhedroviruses. We have initiated efforts to establish a winter moth cell line for future virus studies. We have also recovered diseased larvae and pupae of the closely related Bruce spanworm Operophtera bruceata, which is native to North America. We will attempt to isolate and identify the pathogens infecting these specimens which may well work on winter moth. |
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Impacts We think the most promising avenue for controlling winter moth in the field, is to release the pathogens we isolate from Bruce spanworm. This species has a very similar ecology to winter moth yet outbreak populations rarely occur. Many of the specimens we have recovered of Bruce spanworm appear to be diseased. Bruce spanworm is very closely related to winter moth and the disease agent that works in one may well work in the other. Furthermore, since Bruce spanworm is a native species, approval to release its pathogen would not be difficult to obtain. |
Report Appendices
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