Discover the world of managing plant bacterial diseases at the Scientia Terrae Research Institute

Bacterial plant diseases pose a great challenge for agricultural practices, due to a lack of environmental-friendly, efficient control options. The use of bacteriophages presents a highly sustainable and biological alternative for chemical disease control and is a growing field of research and development in recent years.

Biological control of bacterial plant diseases using bacteriophages is not yet applied in practice within the EU nowadays. Based on experience and success stories with bacteriophages from outside the EU in agriculture, as well asin other fields such as medicine and food safety, Group De Ceuster is currently developing a bacteriophage-based plant protection product to control Erwinia amylovora, the causal agent of fireblight, in apple and pear orchards.

Fireblight represents a serious threat to fruit trees globally, and no efficient control options exist today. The use of copper is still allowed in some countries but is more and more restricted, and the use of antibiotics has serious constraints in terms of resistance development and has already been banned in many countries. Economic losses of the disease are highly significant, with serious infections leading to eradication of entire orchards.

Within Group De Ceuster a bacteriophage cocktail has been developed against this pathogen. Field trials using the product resulted in very promising efficacy data, indicating that the use of bacteriophages as a tool for biocontrol can be of great added value in sustainable agriculture.

What’s in it for you?
Working at Scientia Terrae means you get to be involved in many interesting projects, like the one above. Our PhD’s and postdocs get to dive into the different research projects and perform in-dept studies within their field of expertise. At Scientia Terrae you don’t only perform research, but you also work towards relevant, practical solutions with great impact on the agricultural and horticultural sector. This means you get to see the actual results of your research being transformed into products and used all over the world.

Case study
Our current R&D manager at DCM, Inge Hanssen, performed her doctoral study at Scientia Terrae and Wageningen University, conducting research on the highly infectious Pepino Mosaic virus (PepMV) in greenhouse tomato cultivation. As project coordinator she and her colleagues from Scientia Terrae and the horticultural research stations PSKW and PCH laid the foundation for the development of the PMV®-01 vaccine. This biological plant protection product now offers a sustainable solution to prevent quality and production losses caused by PepMV. During the years she grew in her role within Group De Ceuster, where she switched from Scientia Terrae to DCM to become R&D manager. In her current role she still works closely together with the colleagues at Scientia Terrae in developing new products for DCM