In an attempt to reduce the amount of chemical pesticides sprayed in the world, insect diseases, including fungi and viruses can be used as biopesticides. The advantages of these treatments are that they are effective and do not have the same non-target effects of conventional pesticides. Over the last 20 years the Centre for Biological Control, along with its research partner, Citrus Research International, has been investigating entomopathogens for possible use, mainly in the citrus industry. In 2013, Tamryn Marsberg (Department of Zoology and Entomology) began rearing Litchi moth, Cryptophlebia peltastica, at Rhodes University for her PhD research where she discovered a novel baculovirus. By coincidence, in July 2014 our Polish collaborators, Boguslaw Sczewczyk and Lukasz Rabalski, were asked to assist us in identifying a separate novel virus that had been detected in false codling moth, T. leucotreta. From 2015 to 2017, Michael Jukes (Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology) together with Tamryn and our Polish collaborators researched these novel viruses extensively, realising that in fact they were a single virus, the Alphabaculovirus Cryptophlebia peltastica Nucleopolyhedrovirus (CrpeNPV). Years of research into the identification and efficacy of this virus led us to realise that it had significant potential as a biopesticide and we, with our research partner Citrus Research International (CRI) and our industry partner, River Bioscience (RB) sought to patent it.
The first draft of the CrpeNPV patent was prepared and signed in 2017, and since then the team has worked on defending a challenge to the patent in Europe, through the correct channels until January 2022. The European patent was successfully defended without amendments. This virus has now been commercialised by RB and the very first shipment of the patented CrpeNPV products, MultiMax and CodlMax, were shipped to farmers for use against agricultural pests in South Africa in August 2023. Together with our industry partners, we are working with partners in Africa, North America and Europe to gain more registrations of the CrpeNPV to ensure that this virus has global significance as a tool for sustainable agriculture and resistance management to certain CpGV isolates. This story is a huge achievement for the Centre for Biological Control, along with its’ partners, and we are very proud of our researchers, Tamryn and Michael and the work they have done.