BICOPOLL: Managing bees for delivering
biological control agents and improved
pollination in berry and fruit cultivation
Heikki Hokkanen
Ingeborg Menzler-Hokkanen
Department of Agricultural Sciences
University of Helsinki, Finland
EU conference ”Organic production research
and innovation: setting priorities for the future”
Milano 28-29 May 2015
Contents of the presentation
1. Defining the problem – and an innovative solution
2. Europe-wide collaborative study ‘BICOPOLL’
3. Bottlenecks to implementation and success
4. Prospects for further applications
Flowers are the main pathway for diseases affecting
developing berries and fruits …
Grey mould Botrytis cinerea
•
•
affects many crops
economic losses on strawberry alone
in the EU 100-200 million € annually
Light micrograph of spore
masses of Botrytis cinerea.
http://www.canna-uk.com/botrytis_cinerea
Grey mould. Scanning electron micrograph
showing a grey mould (Botrytis cinerea)
spore germinating on a strawberry leaf.
http://www.canna-uk.com/botrytis_cinerea
Grey mould: main route of infection is by airborne spores
landing on strawberry flower
Grey mould: main route of infection is by airborne spores
landing on strawberry flower
Many other serious plant diseases infect in a similar way
Monilinia fungi:
Brown rot blossom blight on
cherries, plums …
Mummy berry disease on
blueberries
Many other serious plant diseases infect in a similar way
• Fire blight on apple, pear
• Sclerotinium-blight of rapeseed
• Fusarium core rot on apples
Flowers also harbour many serious insect pests
Flowers also harbour many serious insect pests
Western flower thrips
Flowers also harbour many serious insect pests
aphids
Flowers also harbour many serious insect pests
whiteflies
Flowers also harbour many serious insect pests
pollen beetles
Crop protection options against flower invading
diseases and pests
1. Conventional production: spray pesticides
2. Organic production: (practically) none
Biocontrol organisms are available, but either are not
practical, or are too expensive to use when reliable
protection is required.
Key question: delivery of the crop protectant to the
flowers at the right time, and at large enough quantity
Innovative solution: entomovectoring
Pollinating insects like to visit flowers, and are designed to
transport small particles attached to their body hairs - they can
also distribute biological control agents:
Examples
- microbes such as fungal and bacterial
antagonists of plant diseases
- insect pathogenic organisms
(fungi, bacteria, viruses)
Usually the antagonist is transported
into a flower visited by the insect, but
sometimes on leaves of plants
Overwhelming majority of
research has focused on the
use of honeybees as vectors.
Other bees can also be
utilised but their applicability
has
only been tested to a
limited extent.
BICOPOLL case study: Grey mould Botrytis cinerea
Grey mould colonizes the
anthers of strawberries
Photo: M-L Lahdenperä, Verdera Oy
In Finland grey mould
causes annually10-20 %
yield loss and ≈ 5 million
euro economic loss
The grey mould [Botrytis cinerea] antagonist
Gliocladium catenulatum is a parasitic fungus
preventing the growth of many plant pathogenic fungi.
Modes of action: parasitism, competition, nutrient
depletion – but it does not produce antibiotics
The biocontrol challenge:
how to colonise all the
strawberry anthers in the field
with the antagonist, before the
grey mould fungus does it?
Options:
1. spray the antagonist with
conventional sparying
equipment
2. use insect vectors to carry
the antagonist spores to the
flowers, e.g. honey bees
Bees visit every strawberry flower 10 times in a day
5 farms
35 separate
observation
events
>11 hours
of obs.
445
individual
flowers obs.
10-20
flowers at a
time
… and carry about 1000 to 10,000 spores of the
biocontrol product on her hairs at a time
providing CONTINUOUS protection of the flowers.
Entomovector technology:
Bee-vectored biocontrol of plant diseases and pests
Inoculum dispenser
’BeeTreat®’
Entrance of bees
Landing platform
Exit of bees from the
hive, below the plexiglass
BICOPOLL: Joint field experiments in
five countries in Europe, on strawberry
Four treatments were included:
1. Unprotected strawberry as control (Bee-, Spray-)
2. Standard fungicide treatments (Bee-, Spray+)
3. Bee-disseminated biocontrol, no fungicides (B+, S-)
4. Both bee-disseminated biocontrol and fungicide
sprays (Bee+, Spray+)
Results from 26 separate field trials using entomovectoring on strawberry: %-reduction of grey mould
Bee-vectored biocontrol provided higher marketable strawberry
yields than chemical treatments
Additional benefit: shelf-life is extended
Impact of mould control on
strawberry shelf-life:
’sales-box-tests’
Strawberries
remained healthy at
room temperature
twice as long, if grey
mould was controlled
at the time of
flowering
Proportion of mouldy berries (%)
100
90
80
70
60
M-RM-R+
50
M+R40
M+R+
30
20
10
0
0
2
4
6
Days in the sales-box
8
10
Grower adoption of the new technology
Commercial uptake of honey bee vectored precision biocontrol on
strawberry in Finland. The method has been approved for general
use in 2008; now >10 % of all growers use the method.
Agricultural policy reform in Finland provides
strong support to entomovectoring
 Bee-mediated crop protection has been introduced into
new Finnish legislation under the term ”alternative plant
protection in horticulture” [CAP reform, ’greening of CAP’]
 Eligible for environmental support at the level of 500 €/ha
as of spring 2015, if grower substitutes fungicide sprays
with entomovectoring
 Reform is expected to stimulate a breakthrough in the
grower adoption rate for entomovectoring
Bottlenecks to implementation and success
1. Availability of suitable entomovectors
bees for entomovectoring, plus diversity of natural pollinators
2. Availability of effective antagonists
specific strains and optimised formulations registered for the target
applications
3. Lack of knowledge on bee behavior and
management
steering bees to go to the target crop and flower
4. Dedication and knowledge level of operators
it appears easy – but it needs to be carried out precisely, and with
some knowledge of the underlaying ecology of the organisms
Prospects for further applications
All results from BICOPOLL are globally
applicable. We have on-going collaborative
research using these techniques and/or
their modifications in Australia, and
emerging collaborations in South-East Asia,
South- America, the Caribbean, and South
Africa.
Experience in Finland shows that
entomovectoring can easily be integrated
also in conventional production of
strawberry.
Summary
 Bee vectored biocontrol combines two key ecosystem
services: biological control and pollination
 Biocontrol of several key plant diseases and pests on fruit
and berry crops is possible, and often provides a level of
control equal or better than a full chemical pesticide
program; for organic farming, this usually is the only option
for pest and disease control
 Enhanced pollination alone brings yield and quality
increases in the range of 10% to 50%, depending on the
crop
 Intensified R&D, as well as knowledge transfer and training,
are required to exploit the potential of entomovectoring
Thank
you
for your
attention
... and thank you for inviting
me to give this lecture