The Julius Kühn Institute (JKI), ENDURE’s German partner, reports on a successful multi-disciplinary symposium which brought together experts from Germany and China, in addition to representatives from Italy and Switzerland, to investigate integrated management of spotted wing drosophila (SWD) earlier this summer.
Originating in Asia, SWD (Drosophila suzukii ) is proving to be a serious pest in fruit crops across large areas of the United States, in addition to invasions in several European countries, including Belgium, France, Germany and Spain. It is particularly difficult to control, reports JKI, because of its short generation time, resulting in several overlapping generations at different developmental stages, high population densities and broad distribution due to its polyphagy and migration between orchards and natural habitats.
JKI reports that a board of highly qualified experts from universities and research institutes was brought together on its Darmstadt and Dossenheim sites at the end of June. “They presented and discussed their latest results in research in the field of biology and ecology, overwintering, migration, climate adaptation as well as potential non-chemical strategies and novel approaches to control this serious pest,” says the JKI website.
“Eco-evolutionary approaches prove the exceptional position of Drosophila suzukii ,” it adds. “The fly is able to spread rapidly and settle new areas of different structural and climate conditions permanently not only because of its polyphagy, but also due to its morphological and physiological adaptations like egg apparatus, visual and olfactorial orientation, diapausing behaviour and more. Natural enemies are explored intensively in Asia as well as in Europe.
“Innovative research looks for possibilities of resistance breeding or the manipulation of field population by the release of sterilized flies. Current IPM systems that are used in China and Germany were presented (monitoring, prognosis models, plant protection products, cultural measurements etc.).”
This was the second Chinese-German symposium to tackle SWD and JKI reports: “The workshop was successful in building a scientific consortium from both countries covering a multi-discipline approach. The experts summarized that great progress in gain of knowledge about this invasive pest organism has been made since the first meeting in 2015.
“The partners initiated further plans for collaboration. The knowledge and ideas gained from the workshop will be helpful to conduct successful basic and applied research on integrated management of SWD. Thus, follow-up effects are expected for the development of integrated management of SWD in China and Germany as well as in other regions of the world.”
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