‘Brazilian’ virus is AgBiTech’s bet against resistant caterpillars

New innovative biopesticides formulated with virus species found in Brazilian crops will be launched soon, the Australian-American company AgBiTech revealed exclusively to AgroPages.

Some of these agents, reported AgBiTech, showed ″enormous potential″ in the laboratory and raised the spectrum of controlling caterpillars in soybean, corn, cotton and minor crops, among others.

Janayne Rezende, agronomist and doctor in entomology at AgBiTech, pointed out that the company collected more than one species of ″Brazilian origin″ virus, about two years ago.

According to the researcher, once the first results are validated, it is likely that the largest baculovirus factory in the world, which belongs to AgBiTech and is located in Dallas (Texas, USA), will start producing bioinputs containing ″Brazilian viruses″ as active ingredients.

According to AgBiTech's Marketing Director Pedro Marcellino, the expectation is to launch at least one bioinsecticide with a virus originating in Brazil for the 2023-2024 harvest.

He adds that the company's local division also conducts cutting-edge studies to produce new food attractions: inputs intended to reduce the population of moths through the management strategy known as ″attracts and kills″.

The ‘attractives’, Marcellino summarized ″contribute actively″ to IPM or integrated pest management. ″This is an important tool in controlling moths that can lay thousands of eggs.″

According to the director, AgBiTech Brasil also plans to extend its portfolio of solutions beyond soybean, corn and cotton crops and reach vegetables and horticultural crops.

″We are currently evaluating the performance of our biologicals against pests of high economic importance such as the tomato leafminer and the cruciferous leafminer,″ Marcellino said in conclusion.

Investments in Brazil

In six years of activities in Brazil, AgBiTech has become the market leader in virus-based bioinsecticides to control caterpillars in soybean, corn and cotton crops.

To arrive at the result, since it launched in the country, the company has invested heavily in research and development, having increased its laboratory fivefold in the capital Goiânia, hiring more than 30 researchers focused on innovation.

According to AgBiTech's global CEO, Brazilian executive Adriano Vilas Boas, the company's core strategy focuses on growth linked to the technical improvement of the baculovirus portfolio from Australia and the USA.

However, he pointed out that in Brazil, given the robustness of agribusiness and the resulting complexity of controlling caterpillars, the company is now also pursuing the discovery and development of new technologies related to viruses and ‘food attractants’ for moths.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)