Rapid elimination of invasive insect agricultural pest outbreaks by tackling them with Sterile Insect Technique programs (REACT)

REACT旨在制定长期的环境友好型应对战略和新的可持续工具，以保护水果和蔬菜生产和出口能力免受欧盟优先考虑的两种入侵害虫——背小实蝇（bbd）和带小实蝇（Bz）的侵害。该项目提出了一项整体应对计划，以提高预防、识别、监测和控制这些害虫的能力。为了评估入侵风险，REACT将描述早期入侵过程的主要促进因素和关键驱动因素，外来种群的来源和动态，以及物种建立的适宜热点，并分析入侵的潜在生态和社会经济影响。为了在一开始就对抗入侵，REACT将开发一种新颖的现场部署、快速和经济高效的移动拦截解决方案。针对Bd和Bz特有的生物生态特征量身定制的多种新型反应策略组件和工具将被开发和整合，以通过经济上合理的SIT计划应对爆发事件。其中包括一个新的生物信息学管道，为目标物种开发“新古典”遗传性别菌株，新的遗传和代谢标记，以评估大规模饲养的苍蝇的质量，以及用于加强大规模饲养的膳食补充剂。为了在欧洲首次证明根除SIT方法的可行性，将在害虫流行率较低的地区模拟入侵情景，进行带有头型角膜炎的放生。该计划及其社会经济影响将与利益相关者和多方参与者一起进行评估，并将制定针对各种入侵风险情景的快速干预指南。这将转化为无农药的快速反应虫害根除能力，足以适应气候、法律和监管条件变化下的各种欧盟水果栽培和贸易，并能够在改善食品安全的同时保护生态系统和生物多样性。

REACT aims to develop long-term environmentally friendly response strategies and novel sustainable tools to protect fruit and vegetable production and export capacities from two invasive insect pests of EU priority, Bactrocera dorsalis (Bd) and B. zonata (Bz). The project proposes a holistic response plan to provide enhanced capacity to prevent, identify, monitor and control these pests. To assess invasion risks, REACT will characterize the main facilitators and critical drivers of early invasive processes, sources and dynamics of adventive populations, and suitable hotspots for species establishment coupled with the analysis of the potential ecological and socio-economic impacts of invasions. To fight invasions at the first onset, REACT will develop a novel field-deployable, rapid and cost-effective mobile solution for interception. Multiple novel reaction strategy components and tools tailored to the characterized bioecological features of Bd and Bz will be developed and integrated to tackle outbreak events by economically sound SIT programs. These include a new bioinformatic pipeline to develop ‘neoclassical’ genetic sexing strains for the target species, novel genetic and metabolic markers to assess the quality of mass-reared flies, and diet supplements for enhanced mass-rearing. To prove the feasibility of an eradication SIT approach for the first time in Europe, releases with Ceratitis capitata will be conducted in areas with low pest prevalence, mimicking invasion scenarios. The program and its socio-economic impact will be evaluated with stakeholders and multiple actors, and a quick intervention guide for diverse invasion risk scenarios will be developed. This will translate into rapid response pest eradication capabilities that are pesticide free, adequate to a wide variety of EU fruticulture and trade under changing climatic, legal, and regulatory conditions and able to safeguard ecosystems and biodiversity while improving food safety.