The sterile insect technique (SIT) is an environment-friendly method of pest control that integrates well into area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) programmes. This book takes a generic, thematic, comprehensive, and global approach in describing the principles and practice of the SIT. The strengths and weaknesses, and successes and failures, of the SIT are evaluated openly and fairly from a scientific perspective. The SIT is applicable to some major pests of plant-, animal-, and human-health importance, and criteria are provided to guide in the selection of pests appropriate for the SIT. In the second edition, all aspects of the SIT have been updated and the content considerably expanded. A great variety of subjects is covered, from the history of the SIT to improved prospects for its future application. The major chapters discuss the principles and technical components of applying sterile insects. The four main strategic options in using the SIT — suppression, containment, prevention, and eradication — with examples of each option are described in detail. Other chapters deal with supportive technologies, economic, environmental, and management considerations, and the socio-economic impact of AW-IPM programmes that integrate the SIT. In addition, this second edition includes six new chapters covering the latest developments in the technology: managing pathogens in insect mass-rearing, using symbionts and modern molecular technologies in support of the SIT, applying post-factory nutritional, hormonal, and semiochemical treatments, applying the SIT to eradicate outbreaks of invasive pests, and using the SIT against mosquito vectors of disease. This book will be useful reading for students in animal-, human-, and plant-health courses. The in-depth reviews of all aspects of the SIT and its integration into AW-IPM programmes, complete with extensive lists of scientific references, will be of great value to researchers, teachers, animal-, human-, and plant-health practitioners, and policy makers.

Over 98% of sprayed insecticides and 95% of herbicides reach a destination other than their target species, including non-target species, air, water and soil. The extensive reliance on insecticide use reduces biodiversity, contributes to pollinator decline, destroys habitat, and threatens endangered species. This book offers a more effective application of the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach, on an area-wide (AW) or population-wide (AW-IPM) basis, which aims at the management of the total population of a pest, involving a coordinated effort over often larger areas. For major livestock pests, vectors of human diseases and pests of high-value crops with low pest tolerance, there are compelling economic reasons for participating in AW-IPM. This new textbook attempts to address various fundamental components of AW-IPM, e.g. the importance of relevant problem-solving research, the need for planning and essential baseline data collection, the significance of integrating adequate tools for appropriate control strategies, and the value of pilot trials, etc. With chapters authored by 184 experts from more than 31 countries, the book includes many technical advances in the areas of genetics, molecular biology, microbiology, resistance management, and social sciences that facilitate the planning and implementing of area-wide strategies. The book is essential reading for the academic and applied research community as well as national and regional government plant and human/animal health authorities with responsibility for protecting plant and human/animal health.

The second volume of the Scientific Committee's report adds five more annexes to the five in volume one. They cover DNA repair and mutagenesis; biological effects at low radiation doses; combined effects of radiation and other agents; epidemiological evaluation of radiation-induced cancer; and exposures and effects of the Chernobyl accident. Each ends with an impressive number of references. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Proceedings of the final research co-ordination meeting organized by the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 27-31 August 1990. The Co-ordinated Research Programme (CRP) was initiated in 1985 with the purpose of determining the radiation doses required to provide quarantine security from insects and other pests infesting food and agricultural commodities in trade, assessing the tolerance of host commodities to the radiation dose(s) required to provide quarantine security and distributing information on the possible use of irradiation as a quarantine treatment of food and agricultural commodities to interested parties. The results of the work carried out under this CRP by laboratories in several countries have demonstrated that irradiation is a viable alternative to ethylene dibromide fumigation of food. These proceedings include the final reports of work carried out by the scientists who co-operated in this CRP, as well as review papers presented at the Second Task Force Meeting on Irradiation as a Quarantine Treatment of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables held in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, in January 1991.