Tackling pesticide resistance: early detection, management strategies, and foresight
Project Proposal
Seeking collaborators for upcoming Horizon EU call - Tackling pesticide resistance
Can act as:
Seeking expertise:
In the Pest and Pathogen Surveillance Team we lead on developing integrated pest management strategies and on delivering plant pest and plant health monitoring, including extensive monitoring of insect pests of agricultural concern.
We are looking to join a consortium on the above call, and we are able to support the project as Work Package Leader or Consortium Partner. Resources, expertise, and facilities we can contribute include:
- Long-term insect surveillance datasets:
-- We have datasets on weekly aphid abundance from 2016-present.
-- Our datasets cover colonising and non-colonising aphids affecting potato (monitored through pan trapping network) and cereal aphids (monitored through suction traps).
- Pest monitoring and surveillance capabilities:
-- We run suction traps to monitor flying insects on a weekly basis, including migrating aphids, throughout the year.
-- We run light traps to monitor livestock disease vectors on a weekly basis, including midges, throughout the year.
-- We run a pan trap network to monitor aphid and virus risk in potato crops on a weekly basis throughout the main potato growing period.
-- We can augment our passive trapping with field surveillance and sampling of live insects, and test these insects for insecticide resistance using IRAC methods.
-- We can combine our insect monitoring with molecular diagnostics to deliver insecticide resistance and virus monitoring (for vectors) in near real-time.
- Co-design and field testing of AI monitoring and early detection methods:
-- We can use our trap networks to support the development and testing of image vision models for AI-augmented surveillance.
-- We have experience in co-designing, testing, and validating computer-vision insect monitoring systems.
- Capacity to field-test resistance management and pest management strategies:
-- We can co-design and run field and semi-field studies to field-test resistance management strategies and more sustainable pest management strategies.
- Expertise in IPM, pest monitoring, and pesticide resistance testing.
More broadly, The Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) is Northern Ireland's leading scientific research institute. AFBI is a public-sector institute that delivers scientific research, analysis, and diagnostics for the agri-food sector with a focus on sustainable farming and plant health.
Please contact Daniel Leybourne, [email protected], if you are coordinating a network on this topic, and would be interested in working with us!