Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PURPEST (Plant pest prevention through technology-guided monitoring and site-specific control)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-01-01 bis 2024-06-30
One of the ambitious goals of the EU's Farm2Fork strategy is to reduce the use of pesticides by 50%. The expected increase in plant pests due to climate change, international trade and the intensification of food production systems offsets this target.
PurPest aims to control serious plant pests during import and manage pests in the field by enabling pest detection in a timely and non-invasive manner. The PurPest concept will exploit the specific volatiles released by pests or by pest infested plants to develop a sensor system prototype (SSP) that detects the presence of these pests during plant import and to monitor pests already present in Europe. Implementation of the PurPest concept is expected to drastically decrease the risk of new pest invasions into Europe and optimize pesticide use, where and when necessary. Additionally, the PurPest concept used in nurseries to detect serious pests will significantly reduce the distribution of pest infested plant material between exporting and importing countries and their further spread within these countries. PurPest will involve all stakeholders along the value chain in a multi-actor approach to promote this concept, including plant health officers, nursery representatives and forest organizations.
PurPest is focusing on five diverse pests in forestry, horticulture and agriculture; the forestry pathogen causing Sudden Oak Death, Phytophthora ramorum, the causal agent of Pine Wilt Disease, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, the Cotton Bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera, the Brown Marmorated Stinkbug, Halyomorpha halys and the EU A1 listed Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda. Implementation of the PurPest concept will be supported by developing policy recommendations in collaboration with the industry stakeholders, the plant pest scientists and legislators from the national plant protection organizations to ensure feasibility, economic and ecologic benefits and high efficiency of the SSP concept for plant health monitoring.
PurPest aims to control serious plant pests during import and manage pests in the field by enabling pest detection in a timely and non-invasive manner. The PurPest concept will exploit the specific volatiles released by pests or by pest infested plants to develop a sensor system prototype (SSP) that detects the presence of these pests during plant import and to monitor pests already present in Europe. Implementation of the PurPest concept is expected to drastically decrease the risk of new pest invasions into Europe and optimize pesticide use, where and when necessary. Additionally, the PurPest concept used in nurseries to detect serious pests will significantly reduce the distribution of pest infested plant material between exporting and importing countries and their further spread within these countries. PurPest will involve all stakeholders along the value chain in a multi-actor approach to promote this concept, including plant health officers, nursery representatives and forest organizations.
PurPest is focusing on five diverse pests in forestry, horticulture and agriculture; the forestry pathogen causing Sudden Oak Death, Phytophthora ramorum, the causal agent of Pine Wilt Disease, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, the Cotton Bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera, the Brown Marmorated Stinkbug, Halyomorpha halys and the EU A1 listed Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda. Implementation of the PurPest concept will be supported by developing policy recommendations in collaboration with the industry stakeholders, the plant pest scientists and legislators from the national plant protection organizations to ensure feasibility, economic and ecologic benefits and high efficiency of the SSP concept for plant health monitoring.
Collection and analysis of the VOCs emitted by the target pests and their host plants required alignment of the sampling procedures. In PurPest, we developed a mobile head space collection device (HSCD), trained all relevant partners in its use and distributed the new HSCDs to them. While the HSCD was developed, we wrote a literature review on the plant and pest VOCs related to the target pests in PurPest, where all relevant partners contributed with their respective expertise. The data collected from the literature review was summarized as a list openly available on zenodo.org. VOCs from the different target pests were collected in the first 12 to 18 months. Currently, we are collecting VOCs from diverse host plants with and without the pests under different environmental conditions.
The construction and design of the SSP to detect target pests at import areas and prevent their entry, requires specification, testing and integration of the different sensor components. Based on the literature review on VOCs from the target pests, six VOCs were selected as preliminary targets for pre-concentrator selection and sensor development. Our technology partners mapped pre-concentrator materials best suited for target VOCs. Electric boards were completed and a portable Gas Chromatograph (GC) was tested to identify and quantify different VOCs. 3D printed µ-GC columns with high precision are being developed and dispersion of selected metal-organic framework (MOF) powders are being optimized. Fournier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to detect ethanol on MOF powder surfaces. Potential coatings for capturing four target VOCs were identified and tested. Film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) sensors are being optimized to measure changes in frequency, phase and amplitude of VOCs. The design of the SSP is finished and has been sent for manufacture. PurPest is also optimizing a back-etched Solid mounted resonator (SMR) device to optimize thermal control and enhance its performance. The PickMol technology, developed for differentiating molecules in water was successfully tested on volatiles. An intercomparison campaign was organized in April to compare performance of the different detection technology considered for the Sensor platform. A new gas cell has been designed and 3D printed to facilitate exchanging samples and make different measurements more reliableThe electronic board for the Sensor platform is already produced and 3D pictures of the first SSP prototype have been drawn using standard GC modules as a model.
Understanding the environmental economic and social impact of the 5 chosen target pests are essential to promote our VOC-based-sensor. Based on the current literature, we reviewed the current economic impacts of the target pests. This review provided information to better estimate the parameters in the prediction models for the regional costs of each pest. Pest experts from the PurPest consortium provided information to adjust the parameter values for the CLIMEX model. Mechanisms of potential environmental impacts of invasive species were identified from published classification frameworks. Search strings were developed to capture potential literature related to each environmental impact mechanism, and this was adapted to each of the PurPest species. Potential economic impacts related to each phase of the invasion process for each pest were identified based on EPPO reports and peer reviewed literature. Occurrence records and data on host distribution for Phytophthora ramorum and yield loss reports for Halyomorpha halys are being collected. The integration/overlap of the climatic suitability (climatic module) with the host module will indicate the potential establishment of each target pest.
The construction and design of the SSP to detect target pests at import areas and prevent their entry, requires specification, testing and integration of the different sensor components. Based on the literature review on VOCs from the target pests, six VOCs were selected as preliminary targets for pre-concentrator selection and sensor development. Our technology partners mapped pre-concentrator materials best suited for target VOCs. Electric boards were completed and a portable Gas Chromatograph (GC) was tested to identify and quantify different VOCs. 3D printed µ-GC columns with high precision are being developed and dispersion of selected metal-organic framework (MOF) powders are being optimized. Fournier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to detect ethanol on MOF powder surfaces. Potential coatings for capturing four target VOCs were identified and tested. Film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) sensors are being optimized to measure changes in frequency, phase and amplitude of VOCs. The design of the SSP is finished and has been sent for manufacture. PurPest is also optimizing a back-etched Solid mounted resonator (SMR) device to optimize thermal control and enhance its performance. The PickMol technology, developed for differentiating molecules in water was successfully tested on volatiles. An intercomparison campaign was organized in April to compare performance of the different detection technology considered for the Sensor platform. A new gas cell has been designed and 3D printed to facilitate exchanging samples and make different measurements more reliableThe electronic board for the Sensor platform is already produced and 3D pictures of the first SSP prototype have been drawn using standard GC modules as a model.
Understanding the environmental economic and social impact of the 5 chosen target pests are essential to promote our VOC-based-sensor. Based on the current literature, we reviewed the current economic impacts of the target pests. This review provided information to better estimate the parameters in the prediction models for the regional costs of each pest. Pest experts from the PurPest consortium provided information to adjust the parameter values for the CLIMEX model. Mechanisms of potential environmental impacts of invasive species were identified from published classification frameworks. Search strings were developed to capture potential literature related to each environmental impact mechanism, and this was adapted to each of the PurPest species. Potential economic impacts related to each phase of the invasion process for each pest were identified based on EPPO reports and peer reviewed literature. Occurrence records and data on host distribution for Phytophthora ramorum and yield loss reports for Halyomorpha halys are being collected. The integration/overlap of the climatic suitability (climatic module) with the host module will indicate the potential establishment of each target pest.
The Scout3 sensor platform, which features an electronic nose sensor array and a traditional capillary column, was combined with a metal oxide detector. The full platform has been tested for VOCs of interest for the project, which allowed comparing three different ionization energy photoionization detectors (PIDs) at different ionization energies. The instrument advances the technology beyond the state of art as traditionally chromatographic columns have not been combined with metal oxide detectors. This configuration allows testing new sampling methods, including a system for relevant plant VOCs. The system is built as a multi-sensor platform and could integrate different detector technologies, including some of the ones explored under the PurPest project.