Science Bar "Can biological control save the world?"

Thursday, February 8, 2018 from 8:30 to 10 p.m.
Brasserie le Dôme - Montpellier
Free admission (subject to availability)

Biological control is a method of controlling animal or plant pests using antagonistic living organisms known as biological control agents.
It is based on the exploitation by Man, for his own benefit, of a natural relationship between two living beings on this principle:

• the control target is an undesirable organism, crop pest, weed, livestock parasite, etc. ... ;
• the control agent is a different organism, usually a predator or pathogen of the former, which kills it or limits its development, in the shorter or longer term.

Naturally present in most ecosystems, biological control can be used voluntarily in agriculture, for example, as a replacement for conventional pesticides.
With environmental protection increasingly becoming a major global concern, biological control could represent a viable alternative to chemical control.
This science and society debate will be moderated by :

• Fabrice Chandre, researcher at theIRD (Institut de Research pour le Développement), notably in thejoint research unit on infectious diseases and vectors: ecology, genetics, evolution and control (MIVEGEC Laboratory). He is also Director of CNEV (Centre National d'Expertise dédié aux Vecteurs);
• Mylène Ogliastro, virology researcher atINRA (Institut National de la Research Agronomique), and in particular at the Diversité, Génomes et Interactions Microorganismes-Insectes (DGIMI) laboratory.

 
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