The technical specifications for Green Muscle have now been stabilised. A short, public, version is shown below and a full, confidential version forms part of the companies’ licensing agreement between LUBILOSA and the commercial companies.

• Purity: >99% pure spores of Metarhizium anisopliae var acridum IMI 330189
• Moisture content: <5%
• Viability: >90% viable when packed
• Contamination: <1:104
• Particle size: None >150l m
• Virulence: A dose of 5x104 spore administered in 1l l oil causes 90% mortality in adult Schistocerca gregaria in 5 days.

A case study is being prepared (Dent et al. (8)). Licensing agreements have been signed with BCP and NPP.

Submissions to the FAO Pesticide Referee Panel were made in 1997 and 1998 (Bateman, 1997 and 1998 (8)). These were accepted, and Metarhizium IMI 330189 is now recommended by FAO for locust control in environmentally sensitive areas (FAO Pesticide Referee Panel report for 1997 and 1998).

Safety data sheet, ecotoxicological and mammalian toxicological profiles form part of the dossier submitted to the FAO pesticide referee panel, and were transferred to the companies under the terms of the licensing agreements. BCP submitted their dossier to the South African authorities in November 1998, and this has been accepted (Neethling and Dent, 1998 (2); Dent, 1999 (8)). The registration was treated under existing pesticide regulations. NPP submission to CILSS is took place in April 1999.

The most important collaborative link is with the FAO EMPRES programme. A joint mission (Christiaan Kooyman for LUBILOSA, Dan Swanson for MSU and Bernhard Zelazny for GTZ) took place in February/March 1998. A full report is available (EMPRES, 1998), and has led to the development of the Core Research Team concept, through which the various partners involved in biocontrol of locusts will collaborate.

USAID VPI project.

Madagascar is currently severely affected by a plague of African Migratory Locust (Locusta migratoria) and to a lesser extent Red Locust (Nomadacris septemfasciata). LUBILOSA has been requested to assist through three separate channels.

USAID/PACT are funding a research project co-ordinated by MSU. LUBILOSA will assist in alternative technology mass production, spore separation and storage. However, this project aims to develop indigenous pathogens only (Metarhizium SP9) and has rather unclear objectives.

Hugo De Groote participated in a GTZ/World Bank review mission in February 1998.

Christiaan Kooyman participated in two missions for the African Development Bank.

LUBILOSA has collaborative links with the following organisations: University of Bath and Reading (UK), University of Basel (Switzerland), BBA, ICIPE, NARES of South Africa, Sudan, Benin, Niger, Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, LOCUSTOX, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and various other more informal links.

Lack of regulations specifically relating to biological pesticides has been highlighted as a constraint to the implementation of microbial control world-wide, but specifically in Africa. A case study of LUBILOSA experiences registering Metarhizium with BCP under pesticide registration regulations in South Africa has been prepared for presentation at an EMPRES meeting in Cairo, April 1999 (Dent et al., 1999 (8)).

The System-Wide Programme for IPM Beneficial Micro-Organisms task force (see Links page) is conducting a world-wide survey of biopesticide regulations, in collaboration with OECD and FAO.

The 'journée de reflexion' is a means of public awareness-raising much favoured in francophone West Africa. Local heads of extension services, farmer group representatives, NGOs and other stake-holders are invited (with per diems and food provided) to listen to a morning of technical presentations, followed by group discussions. We held two such sessions in 1997, one in Lokossa (Mono, southern Benin, 3/6/97)and one in Kandi (north Benin; 8 - 9/7/97).

Sessions were held in 1998 in Bamako and Mopti, Mali, and during the LUBILOSA partner's meeting in Niamey; then in Zinder, April 1998. In Chad, a meeting was held in December 1997. In Benin, at and Kandi.

A product launch was held at Pinetown, South Africa in March 1998 (LUBILOSA, 1998a (7)).

(http://www.cgiar.org/iita/research/lubilosa/index.htm)

(Administratively, in the CGIAR, LUBILOSA falls under IITA's project 3, Biological Control and Biodiversity, in the Plant Health Management Division.)

• The Green Muscle users' handbook is available in English and French, and a version for South Africa is available.
• The Technical Bulletin set will no longer be published, as an excellent technical manual has been published by Academic Press (Ed. L. Lacey, Manual of techniques in insect pathology).
• A second slide set was prepared and distributed at Niamey partners meeting1998.

A full list of deliverables is available in Section 6 of the publication list.