The potential of decision support systems to improve risk assessment for pollen beetle management in winter oilseed rape

BACKGROUNDThe reliance on and extensive use of pyrethroid insecticides have led to pyrethroid resistance in pollen beetle (Meligethes aeneus). Widespread adoption of best practice in pollen beetle management is therefore needed. Decision support systems (DSSs) that identify the risk period(s) for pest migration can help to target monitoring and control efforts, but they must be accurate and labour efficient to gain the support of growers. Weather data and the phenology of pollen beetles in 44 winter oilseed rape crops across England over 4 years were used to compare the performance of two risk management tools: the DSS proPlant expert, which predicts migration risk according to a phenological model and local weather data, and rule-based advice', which depends on crop growth stage and a temperature threshold. RESULTSBoth risk management tools were effective in prompting monitoring that would detect breaches of various control thresholds. However, the DSS more accurately predicted migration start and advised significantly fewer days of migration risk, consultation days and monitoring than did rule-based advice. CONCLUSIONThe proPlant expert DSS reliably models pollen beetle phenology. Use of such a DSS can focus monitoring effort to when it is most needed, facilitate the practical use of thresholds and help to prevent unnecessary insecticide applications and the development of insecticide resistance. (c) 2015 Rothamsted Research Ltd. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry

Development of an integrated pest management strategy for control of pollen beetles in winter oilseed rape (HGCA Project Report No 504)

We have developed an integrated pest management strategy (IPM) for pollen beetles in winter oilseed rape (OSR) based on risk assessment, monitoring and alternative crop management that can be used as a framework by growers and crop consultants to manage pollen beetles with reduced insecticide inputs - and the confidence to do so. This will prolong insecticide life by reducing selection for resistance, reduce environmental impacts and contribute towards the sustainability and profitability of OSR in the UK. One of the major limitations to the use of action thresholds is that proper monitoring of the populations is time consuming and has to be conducted over a prolonged period. To encourage and facilitate their use, we tested and developed tools to improve risk assessment and monitoring. We conducted a pollen beetle monitoring study over 4 years in 178 OSR crops across the UK. Pollen beetles were sampled using sticky traps and plant sampling along transects in the crop. The data were used to help test a decision support system (DSS) for pollen beetles and to develop a monitoring trap. proPlant Expert is a DSS available in mainland Europe that uses a model of pollen beetle immigration and local meteorological data to forecast the start and end of pollen beetle immigration into the crop and main risk periods and advises when to monitor. We tested the model under UK conditions using data from our study and compared monitoring advice with the current advice system on the CropMonitor website (advises monitoring when the crop is at green-yellow bud stage and temperature >15°C). Both performed reassuringly well in prompting monitoring that would detect breaches of spray thresholds. However there were considerable reductions provided by proPlant in the need for consultation of the system (30%) and advised monitoring days (34-53%) in comparison with current advice. Use of the proPlant DSS could therefore focus monitoring effort to when it is most needed. It could also help to reduce unnecessary sprays in cases where beetle numbers are approaching threshold but consultation of the system returns a poor immigration risk forecast or an immigration complete result. The proPlant tool is now freely available to growers and crop consultants in the UK via the Bayer CropScience website. A monitoring trap for pollen beetles would help to more easily and accurately identify when spray thresholds have been breached than monitoring plants in the crop. We developed a baited monitoring trap for pollen beetles which will be commercially available from Oecos. The trap comprises a yellow sticky card mounted at 45°, baited with phenylacetaldehyde, a floral volatile produced naturally by several plant species. Unfortunately using data from our study we were unable to calibrate the trap catch to a given action threshold expressed as the number of beetles per plant using a simple linear relationship. However, the monitoring trap still has value for risk assessment, especially if used together with DSS. We tested the potential of turnip rape (TR) trap crops, planted as borders to the main OSR crop to reduce pollen beetle numbers in a field scale experiment conducted over three years on two sites. We found evidence that the strategy worked well in some years, but not others. This tactic is probably practically and economically worthwhile only for organic growers

Ingelvac MycoFLEX® provides at least 26 weeks duration of immunity against M. hyopneumoniae

Piontkowski, M.; Ohnesorge, W.; von Richthofen, I.. (2008). Ingelvac MycoFLEX® provides at least 26 weeks duration of immunity against M. hyopneumoniae. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/154087

Synthesis, Structure, and Magnetic Characterization of a C-3-Symmetric (Mn3CrIII)-Cr-III Assembly: Molecular Recognition Between a Trinuclear Mn-III Triplesalen Complex and a fac-Triscyano Cr-III Complex

von Richthofen C-G, Stammler A, Bögge H, DeGroot MW, Long JR, Glaser T. Synthesis, Structure, and Magnetic Characterization of a C-3-Symmetric (Mn3CrIII)-Cr-III Assembly: Molecular Recognition Between a Trinuclear Mn-III Triplesalen Complex and a fac-Triscyano Cr-III Complex. INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 2009;48(21):10165-10176.The reaction of the tris(tetradentate) triplesalen ligand H(6)talen(t-Bu2), which provides three salen-like coordination environments bridged in a meta-phenylene arrangement by a phloroglucinol backbone, with Wit salts under aerobic conditions, affords, in situ, the trinuclear Mn-III triplesalen complex [(talen(t-Bu2)){Mn-III(solv)(n)}(3)](3+). This species then reacts with [(Me(3)tacn)Cr(CN)(3)] to form the tetranuclean complex [(talen)(t-Bu2))Mn-3(III))}{(Me(3)tacn)Cr(CN)(3)}](3+) ([(Mn3CrIII)-Cr-III](3+)). The regular ligand folding observed in the trinuclear triplesalen complex preorganizes the three metal ions for the reaction with three facially coordinated nitrogen atoms of [(Me(3)tacn)Cr(CN)(3)]. [{(talen(t-Bu2))- (Mn-III(MeOH))(3)}{(Me(3)tacn)Cr(CN)(3)(-))](ClO4)(3) (1) was characterized by infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, mass spectrometry, electron absorption spectroscopy, and magnetic measurements. The molecular structure was established for the acetate-substituted derivative [{(talen(t-Bu2))(MnIII(MeOH))(2)(Mn-III(OAc))}{(Me(3)tacn)Cr(CN)(3)}]-(C lO4)(2) (2) by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Variable-temperature - variable-field and mu(eff) versus T magnetic data have been analyzed in detail by full-matrix diagonalization of the appropriate spin-Hamiltonian, consisting of isotropic exchange, zero-field splitting, and Zeeman interaction components. Satisfactory reproduction of the experimental data has been obtained for the parameters J(Mn-Cr) = -0.12 +/- 0.04 cm(-1), J(Mn-Mn) = -0.70 +/- 0.03 cm(-1), and D-Mn = -3.0 +/- 0.4 cm(-1). These generate a triply degenerate pseudo S-t = 7/2 spin manifold, which cannot be appropriately described by a giant spin model and which exhibits a weak easy-axis magnetic anisotropy. This is corroborated by the onset of a frequency-dependent X '' signal at low temperatures, demonstrating a slow relaxation of the magnetization indicative of 1 being a single-molecule magnet. Comparing the properties to those of the heptanuclear analogue [{(talen(t-Bu2))Mn-3(III))(2){Cr-III(CN)(6))](3+) ([(Mn6CrIII)-Cr-III](3+)) formed by the reaction of 2 equiv of [(talent(t-Bu2)) {Mn-III(SOlV)(n)}(3)](3+) with 1 equiv of [Cr(CN)(6)](3-) [Glaser, T.; Heidemeier, M.; Weyhermuller, T.; Hoffmann, R.-D.; Rupp, H.; Muller, P. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2006, 45, 6033-6037] demonstrates a lower driving force for formation a strongly reduced J(Mn-Cr) exchange, a slightly reduced JMn-Mn exchange, and a significantly longer Mn-N-N=c bond length in [(Mn3CrIII)-Cr-III](3+). Taking into account magneto-structural correlations establishes a supramolecular interaction between the two [(talen(t-Bu2))Mn-3(III)](3+) subunits in [(Mn6CrIII)-Cr-III](3+) responsible for the structural distortion and the short Mn-N-N=C distance which results in a strong J(Mn-Cr) exchange and thus [(Mn6CrIII)-Cr-II](3+) being a single-molecule magnet with a relatively high effective anisotropy barrier of 25.4 K