Journal or Publishing Institution: Proceedings of the Third Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group on Biosafety
Author(s): Tappeser, B.
Article Type: Report
Record ID: 1925
Text: B. thuringiensis (Bt) was discovered by Ernst Berliner in 1911 when a consignment of flour moths sent in from Thuringia was found to be infected by some contagious pathogen. After some more properties of this Bacillus species had been identified, including its host specifity, it did not take long until first experiments were being carried out on its effectiveness in controlling the corn borer (1928-1931). However, it was not until after the Second World War, when first problems with synthetic pesticides turned up, that serious attempts were made to establish B. thuringiensis as a biological pesticide (Krieg, 1986).
In 1995 the market volume of Bt preparations was at an estimated 90 million US dollars, and 67 preparations were registered worldwide (Kumar et al., 1997). Bt preparations account for 80 – 90% of all biological pesticides. By contrast, their share in the whole insecticide market is no more than 1 – 2%, though there has been an upward tendency since the early nineties. Forecasts made in 1991 predicted that by the year 2000 Bt preparations would account for 5 – 10% of the world insecticide market (Bernhard and Utz, 1993).
The main target pests of Bt insecticides include various lepidopterous (butterfly), dipterous (flies and mosquitoes), and individual coleopterous (beatle) species. Some strains have also been found to kill off nematodes (Edward et al., 1988; Krieg and Franz, 1989). Conventional Bt preparations such as those registered in Germany but also worldwide are mostly derived from the highly potent strain Bacillus thurigiensis var. kurstaki HD1, which was isolated in the sixties (Dulmage, 1970, cited in Kumar et al., 1997)…
Keywords: Bacillus thuringiensis, Market Volume, Pesticides, Insecticide Market, Lepidopterous, Butterfly, Dipterous, Flies, Mosquitos, Coleopterous, Beatle, Nematodes, Endotoxins, Toxin Genes, Bt toxin, Cotton Bollworm, Helicoverpazea, European Corn Borer (Ostrinia Nubialis)
Citation: Tappeser, B., 1998. The differences between conventional Bacillus thuringiensis strains and transgenic insect resistant plants: Possible reasons for rapid resistance development and susceptibility of non-target organisms. In Proceedings of the Third Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group on Biosafety, Montreal, Canada.
