Objective of the R&D activities is the improvement of a liquid culture process technology to produce high-quality entomopathogenic nematodes for a cost-effective biological control of soil borne insect pests.
The development is supported by a genetic strain improvement and by fundamental research on the developmental biology of the nematodes. Major objective of the R&D is the scale-up, process control and downstream processing of the nematode production technology and the development of innovative quality control methods in order to reduce production cost and to increase product quality.
Nematodes have several advantages over chemical control measures, they are users friendly, and they conserve the antagonistic potential of beneficial organisms and their control potential surpasses that of chemical insecticides. Due to a propagation on the host insect, nematodes persist in the agro-environment and thus contribute to a sustainable control of the pests. Main disadvantage of nematode products was their relatively high price , short shelf-life and the unreliable supply. Through the scientific and technical progress obtained within the collaboration of the three scientific and two industry partners, three nematode products produced in a liquid culture could be developed. They are successfully used in tree nurseries, turf grass industry, strawberries and ornamentals. Due to the reduction of the product cost and the success in scaling-up the technology to large scale bioreactors, the large-scale outdoor use of biocontrol nematodes can now be developed for inundative application in horticulture, orchards and forestry.