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Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda Infestations in East Africa: Assessment of Damage and Parasitism

The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, threatens maize production in Africa. A survey was conducted to determine the distribution of FAW and its natural enemies and damage severity in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania in 2017 and 2018. A total of 287 smallholder maize farms (holding smaller than...

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Autores principales: Sisay, Birhanu, Simiyu, Josephine, Mendesil, Esayas, Likhayo, Paddy, Ayalew, Gashawbeza, Mohamed, Samira, Subramanian, Sevgan, Tefera, Tadele
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6681394/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31277232
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects10070195
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author Sisay, Birhanu
Simiyu, Josephine
Mendesil, Esayas
Likhayo, Paddy
Ayalew, Gashawbeza
Mohamed, Samira
Subramanian, Sevgan
Tefera, Tadele
author_facet Sisay, Birhanu
Simiyu, Josephine
Mendesil, Esayas
Likhayo, Paddy
Ayalew, Gashawbeza
Mohamed, Samira
Subramanian, Sevgan
Tefera, Tadele
author_sort Sisay, Birhanu
collection PubMed
description The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, threatens maize production in Africa. A survey was conducted to determine the distribution of FAW and its natural enemies and damage severity in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania in 2017 and 2018. A total of 287 smallholder maize farms (holding smaller than 2 hectares of land) were randomly selected and surveyed. FAW is widely distributed in the three countries and the percent of infested maize fields ranged from 33% to 100% in Ethiopia, 93% to 100% in Tanzania and 100% in Kenya in 2017, whereas they ranged from 80% to 100% and 82.2% to 100% in Ethiopia and Kenya, respectively, in 2018. The percent of FAW infestation of plants in the surveyed fields ranged from 5% to 100%. In 2017, the leaf damage score of the average of the fields ranged from 1.8 to 7 (9 = highest level of damage), while 2018, it ranged from 1.9 to 6.8. In 2017, five different species of parasitoids were recovered from FAW eggs and larvae. Cotesia icipe (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) was the main parasitoid recorded in Ethiopia, with a percent parasitism rate of 37.6%. Chelonus curvimaculatus Cameron (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) was the only egg-larval parasitoid recorded in Kenya and had a 4.8% parasitism rate. In 2018, six species of egg and larval parasitoids were recovered with C. icipe being the dominant larval parasitoid, with percentage parasitism ranging from 16% to 42% in the three surveyed countries. In Kenya, Telenomus remus (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) was the dominant egg parasitoid, causing up to 69.3% egg parasitism as compared to only 4% by C. curvimaculatus. Although FAW has rapidly spread throughout these three countries, we were encouraged to see a reasonable level of biological control in place. Augmentative biological control can be implemented to suppress FAW in East Africa.
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spelling pubmed-66813942019-08-09 Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda Infestations in East Africa: Assessment of Damage and Parasitism Sisay, Birhanu Simiyu, Josephine Mendesil, Esayas Likhayo, Paddy Ayalew, Gashawbeza Mohamed, Samira Subramanian, Sevgan Tefera, Tadele Insects Article The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, threatens maize production in Africa. A survey was conducted to determine the distribution of FAW and its natural enemies and damage severity in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania in 2017 and 2018. A total of 287 smallholder maize farms (holding smaller than 2 hectares of land) were randomly selected and surveyed. FAW is widely distributed in the three countries and the percent of infested maize fields ranged from 33% to 100% in Ethiopia, 93% to 100% in Tanzania and 100% in Kenya in 2017, whereas they ranged from 80% to 100% and 82.2% to 100% in Ethiopia and Kenya, respectively, in 2018. The percent of FAW infestation of plants in the surveyed fields ranged from 5% to 100%. In 2017, the leaf damage score of the average of the fields ranged from 1.8 to 7 (9 = highest level of damage), while 2018, it ranged from 1.9 to 6.8. In 2017, five different species of parasitoids were recovered from FAW eggs and larvae. Cotesia icipe (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) was the main parasitoid recorded in Ethiopia, with a percent parasitism rate of 37.6%. Chelonus curvimaculatus Cameron (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) was the only egg-larval parasitoid recorded in Kenya and had a 4.8% parasitism rate. In 2018, six species of egg and larval parasitoids were recovered with C. icipe being the dominant larval parasitoid, with percentage parasitism ranging from 16% to 42% in the three surveyed countries. In Kenya, Telenomus remus (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) was the dominant egg parasitoid, causing up to 69.3% egg parasitism as compared to only 4% by C. curvimaculatus. Although FAW has rapidly spread throughout these three countries, we were encouraged to see a reasonable level of biological control in place. Augmentative biological control can be implemented to suppress FAW in East Africa. MDPI 2019-07-03 /pmc/articles/PMC6681394/ /pubmed/31277232 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects10070195 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Sisay, Birhanu
Simiyu, Josephine
Mendesil, Esayas
Likhayo, Paddy
Ayalew, Gashawbeza
Mohamed, Samira
Subramanian, Sevgan
Tefera, Tadele
Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda Infestations in East Africa: Assessment of Damage and Parasitism
title Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda Infestations in East Africa: Assessment of Damage and Parasitism
title_full Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda Infestations in East Africa: Assessment of Damage and Parasitism
title_fullStr Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda Infestations in East Africa: Assessment of Damage and Parasitism
title_full_unstemmed Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda Infestations in East Africa: Assessment of Damage and Parasitism
title_short Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda Infestations in East Africa: Assessment of Damage and Parasitism
title_sort fall armyworm, spodoptera frugiperda infestations in east africa: assessment of damage and parasitism
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6681394/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31277232
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects10070195
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