04697naa a2200217 a 450000100080000000500110000800800410001902400380006010000210009824500530011926000090017230000160018152039550019765000250415265000160417765000240419365000200421765000260423765000110426377302050427421190012020-01-20       2019    bl uuuu     u00u1 u    #d7 a10.1007/978-3-030-24733-1_122DOI1 aVALICENTE, F. H.  aEntomopathogenic viruses.h[electronic resource]  c2019  ap. 137-150.  aBrazil is essentially a tropical country with continental dimensions and several agricultural frontiers. The most recent MATOPIBA border includes part of the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, and Bahia. The average annual temperature in these regions is always favorable to the appearance of insect pests in many different crops. Faced with the current Brazilian landscape, these regions reach up to three annual crops with a supply of ?green? food for insect pests from planting to harvest due to the overlapping of crops throughout the year. This factor is called ?green bridge.? As large areas of agricultural frontiers mainly plant soybeans, cotton, maize, and beans, insect pests such as caterpillars migrate easily between crops, for example, the soybean looper, Chrysodeixis sp., which is also a major cotton pest. Fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Noctuidae), is one of the most important corn pests, but it is also a pest of soy, cotton, and beans. The same happens with the cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Noctuidae) that attacks corn, soybean, and cotton. The control of these agricultural pests is essentially done with the indiscriminate use of chemical insecticides, which has generated environmental pollution throughout the planet, besides causing the intoxication of applicators, rivers, and springs and the contamination of the final product to be sold in the market, both in natura and in processed ones. Among the biological control agents, viruses, especially those from the baculovirus group, are a viable alternative for pest control of agricultural importance and are a fundamental tool within the context of integrated pest management (IPM). Baculoviruses are host-specific restricted to arthropods (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2002). So far, no cases of pathogenicity of a baculovirus to a vertebrate have been reported (Krieg et al. 1980; Entwistle 1983). More than 17 families or groups of invertebrate viruses have been recognized as pathogenic to insects, of which baculoviruses have been the most documented (Harrison et al. 2016). Baculoviruses are genetically and morphologically distinct from other invertebrate virus families and are the largest group of insect-attacking viruses. According to Miller (1997) and Eberle et al. (2012a, b), the number of baculoviruses described to date, over 600, is from the family Baculoviridae infecting Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Hymenoptera (sawflies), and Diptera (mosquitos) (Herniou et al. 2012), although Federici (1997) suggested that many more virus can be identified from Lepidoptera. The diseases associated with this type of viral structure are named polyhedrosis and their transmission can occur via occlusion bodies (OBs) present in foods ? usually sprayed on the leaves like a biopesticide, or horizontal transmission, when present on the surface of eggs, and vertical transmission, inside the ovum of infected adults (females or males). The baculovirus group is a viable alternative for pest control of agricultural importance and is an important tool within the context of IPM. Many biological control programs use baculovirus as the main biological pesticide. Baculoviruses are host-specific restricted to arthropods. So far, no cases of pathogenicity of a baculovirus to a vertebrate have been reported. The objective of this chapter is to demonstrate the diversity of the Baculoviridae family, to which one of the most important virus used in biological control belongs. We indicate the advantages and disadvantages of using the baculovirus for the biological control of agricultural pests and the safety towards mammals, vertebrates, and other animals of using biological products based on baculovirus. We also list biological control programs worldwide that use baculovirus as a biological pesticide and considerations on the use and application of baculovirus products in the field.  aHelicoverpa armigera  aBaculovirus  aControle Biológico  aPraga de Planta  aSpodoptera Frugiperda  aVírus  tIn: SOUZA, B.; VÁZQUEZ, L. L.; MARUCCI, R. C. (Ed.). Natural enemies of insect pests in neotropical agroecosystems: biological control and functional biodiversity. Switzerland: Springer Nature, 2019.