41st Annual Meeting of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology
and 9th International Conference on Bacillus thuringiensis

The value in having Bt products with consistent performance and confirmed safety is an increase in consumer confidence, ultimately leading to increased use and demand of Bt products and potentially other biological control agents. However, poor quality control in even one company can damage the reputation of Bt’s and microbials in general. Assuring biopotency of products by using reliable standards is important, but is only one aspect of QC. At Valent BioSciences, quality control measures are applied at all stages of manufacturing, from strain identity to packaging and distribution of the final product. Recently, Bt products have been appearing in the worldwide market that demonstrate an obvious lack of quality control, even though biopotency may be met. In some cases the products have been misrepresented or adulterated. Thus, in addition to implementing high standards of quality control, it is in the interest of the entire biopesticide industry to provide stewardship for all products on the market.

The development of bacterial insectcides has experienced up and down cycles. During the past several years, there have been significant changes in the companies which engage in the development and commercialization of bacteria insecides. Commercialization of products other than Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) have limited success. Bt based formulations remain the main products in this field Other bacteria failed in the market place due to (1) production issues, (2) market size, (3) efficacy, (3) competition, (4) stability and (5) registration costs etc. Quality control of bacterial insecticides includes the passage of multiple physical properties and the assurance of insect killing power or potency of a formulation. The potency of Bt based insecticides is generally estimated by bioassy, i.e. the measuement of the dose rsponse of target insect to a formulation in comparison to a recognized standard of know potency. There are successes and issues of using alternative methods other than bioassay to determine potency. The limitations of using the alternative methods will be presented and discussed.