{"id":12990,"date":"2026-06-20T12:26:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/thailand-taps-iita-expertise-as-cassava-mealybug-invades-country\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T12:26:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:26:03","slug":"thailand-taps-iita-expertise-as-cassava-mealybug-invades-country","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/thailand-taps-iita-expertise-as-cassava-mealybug-invades-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Thailand taps IITA expertise as cassava mealybug invades country"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Government of Thail and, through its Department of Agriculture based at Chatuchak, Bangkok, has requested the assistance of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to help in the biological control of the cassava mealybug, <em>Phenacoccus manihoti,<\/em> which had recently invaded country  and possibly also Laos  and Cambodia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><figure id=\"attachment_9497\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9497\" style=\"width: 230px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/newint.iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/image_gallery-4.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9497\" src=\"http:\/\/newint.iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/image_gallery-4.jpg\" alt=\"Image\" width=\"230\" height=\"165\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9497\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Collecting samples of the cassava mealybug for study. Photo by IITA.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The mealybug has already spread over 160,000 hectares around the East  and Northeastern provinces of Thail and, where cassava is an important export crop mainly for starch production  and cattle feed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To halt the spread of the mealy bug, a stock rearing colony of <em>Anagyrus lopezi,<\/em> a natural enemy of the pest, has been imported into Thail and from the IITA laboratories in Benin by Georg Goergen, IITA Entomologist. Goergen brought the materials in September 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The wasps were placed into rearing under quarantine conditions in Bangkok  and released in November 2009 after release permits were issued. Further releases were made in January 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It will be recalled that this same mealybug had reached Africa in the late 1970s  and caused widespread devastation  and even famine when it destroyed cassava, which in Africa is an important food  and locally traded subsistence crop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Respite came when an IITA-led group of institutions initiated a campaign to find, import, rear  and distribute adapted natural enemies from South America, the purported home of the foreign invader. By 1981, the encyrtid parasitoid <em>A. lopezi<\/em> (then <em>Apoanagyrus<\/em> ou <em>Epidinocarsis<\/em>) was located in Paraguay, later in Brazil, shipped through quarantine, mass-reared at IITA  and distributed. What followed was one of the greatest recent successes in classical biological control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Thail and, the cassava mealybug was not immediately recognized because another closely related mealybug species common on cassava, presumably Phenacoccus madeirensis, confused the situation, according to Peter Neuenschw ander, IITA Emeritus Scientist based in IITA-Benin. He says the identification of the mealybug by a taxonomic authority cleared the path for classical biological control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is hoped that IITA\u2019s involvement in the mealybug control project in Asia will produce results within a much shorter time span  and at much reduced costs as experts intend to leverage on past experience  and techniques that made the African success story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">###<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pour plus d'informations, veuillez contacter :<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr. Peter Neuenschw ander, <a>p.neuenschw ander@cgiar.org<\/a><br>Scientist Emeritus<br>IITA-B\u00e9nin<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr. Georg Goergen, <a>g.goergen@cgiar.org<\/a><br>Entomologist<br>IITA-B\u00e9nin<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Godwin Atser, <a>g.atser@cgiar.org<\/a><br>Charg\u00e9 de la communication d'entreprise (Afrique de l'Ouest)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jeffrey T. Oliver, <a>o.jeffrey@cgiar.org<\/a><br>Charg\u00e9 de communication d'entreprise (international)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bureau de la communication<br>IITA \u2013 Si\u00e8ge<br>Ibadan, Nig\u00e9ria<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>\u00c0 propos de l'IITA<\/b><br>L'Afrique est confront\u00e9e \u00e0 des probl\u00e8mes complexes qui minent l'agriculture et la vie des populations. Nous d\u00e9veloppons des solutions agricoles avec nos partenaires pour lutter contre la faim et la pauvret\u00e9. Notre recherche pour le d\u00e9veloppement (R4D), maintes fois r\u00e9compens\u00e9e, repose sur une r\u00e9flexion cibl\u00e9e et autoris\u00e9e, ancr\u00e9e dans les besoins de d\u00e9veloppement de l'Afrique subsaharienne. Nous travaillons avec des partenaires en Afrique et au-del\u00e0 pour r\u00e9duire les risques pour les producteurs et les consommateurs, am\u00e9liorer la qualit\u00e9 et la productivit\u00e9 des cultures, et g\u00e9n\u00e9rer de la richesse gr\u00e2ce \u00e0 l'agriculture. L'IITA est une organisation internationale de recherche pour le d\u00e9veloppement sans but lucratif, cr\u00e9\u00e9e en 1967, dirig\u00e9e par un Conseil d'administration et soutenue principalement par le CGIAR.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Government of Thailand, through its Department of Agriculture based at Chatuchak, Bangkok, has requested the assistance of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to help in the biological control of the cassava mealybug, Phenacoccus manihoti, which had recently invaded country and possibly also Laos and Cambodia.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"science-area":[],"program":[],"location":[],"news-type":[],"hub":[],"crop":[],"impact-areas":[],"item-year":[188],"class_list":["post-12990","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","hentry","item-year-188"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - 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