Environmental and socioeconomic effects of mosquito control in Europe using the biocide Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti)

作者：Carsten A. Brühl, Laurence Després, Oliver Frör, Chandrashekhar D. Patil, Brigitte Poulin, Guillaume Tetreau, Stefanie Allgeier · 发表于：The Science of The Total Environment · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137800 · 被引用次数：129 · 研究领域：Mosquito-borne diseases and control、Insect Resistance and Genetics、Insect and Pesticide Research

Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti) has been used in mosquito control programs to reduce nuisance in Europe for decades and is generally considered an environmentally-safe, effective and target-specific biocide. However, the use of Bti is not uncontroversial. Target mosquitoes and affected midges represent an important food source for many aquatic and terrestrial predators and reduction of their populations is likely to result in food-web effects at higher trophic levels. In the context of global biodiversity loss, this appears particularly critical since treated wetlands are often representing conservation areas. In this review, we address the current large-scale use of Bti for mosquito nuisance control in Europe, provide a description of its regulation followed by an overview of the available evidence on the parameters that are essential to evaluate Bti use in mosquito control. Bti accumulation and toxin persistence could result in a chronic expose of mosquito populations ultimately affecting their susceptibility, although observed increase in resistance to Bti in mosquito populations is low due to the four toxins involved. A careful independent monitoring of mosquito susceptibility, using sensitive bioassays, is mandatory to detect resistance development timely. Direct Bti effects were documented for non-target chironomids and other invertebrate groups and are discussed for amphibians. Field studies revealed contrasting results on possible impacts on chironomid...