Baculovirus insecticides: Present and future - opportunities and challenges

The role of baculovirus-based insecticides for control of Lepidopteran pests has grown significantly since the turn of this century. Increased use of this product category has largely been driven by production technology and declining chemical insecticide options, which have respectively increased the supply of lower cost baculovirus products and enhanced demand for alternative control measures. In addition, a greater focus on developing these products for application in field crops has expanded the addressable market area. Earlier, development of baculoviruses focused on high-value crops, such as pome fruit and cotton. These crops have limited areas globally and require high efficacy that causes limited uptake.

Despite this recent growth, several characteristics of baculovirus-based insecticides constrains their market acceptance.  These include their narrow host-range, slow speed-of-kill, short residual life of sprayed virus, and the need for cool-storage.  The next phase of baculovirus research and development will need to focus on these issues, with potential areas of emphasis being biological formulation technology and evaluation of genetic techniques such as CRISPR to provide enhanced product characteristics.  In addition, the expanding use of robotics and remote sensing may enable baculoviruses to be more accurately targeted against developing pest populations.  Outcomes from dedicated research into these aspects will enable accelerated expansion in the use of baculovirus-based insecticide technology.