A project seeking registration for a new-to-New Zealand bioinsecticide has submitted its new organism application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), a significant step on the regulatory journey.
A Lighter Touch, together with Vegetables New Zealand and Key Industries Ltd, is taking a bioinsecticide for the control of diamondback moth (DBM) through the regulatory pathway with the goal of mapping the complexity of registration of a biopesticide for use in New Zealand. The project’s primary aim is to produce a case study providing guidance to industry on how to navigate the regulatory pathway in a faster and more cost-effective manner.
An additional benefit of providing growers with another crop protection option for DBM, a priority pest in brassica crops, is the reduction in pesticide resistance risk that a new mode of action option will bring to the market.
Flowchart of regulatory pathway.
If approved, the new organism application will enable the biological active ingredient in the bioinsecticide to be imported as a “new organism” in a formulated product and field tested in New Zealand under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (HSNO) Act.
The new organism application was necessary because laboratory testing of DBM larvae collected in New Zealand has failed to detect the presence of the virus which is the active ingredient in the bioinsecticide.
The bioinsecticide has already received HSNO approval to be imported under containment for host range testing against DBM and other possible hosts in New Zealand. This approval was granted last August, and containment trials were undertaken by the Bioeconomy Science Institute in a secure, purpose-built facility. These trials have shown the biopesticide is effective against DBM gathered through field collection and reared to obtain sufficient numbers of DBM larvae required for testing.
While EPA is assessing the new organism application, the next steps for the project include planning work for field trials and preparation of the documentation required for the applications for hazardous substances approval from EPA and for ACVM registration.
Both these applications require field trial results to be included before they can be submitted. Field trials can only begin after new organism approval has been received.
A further containment approval is required for use of the bioinsecticide formulation in field trials. The initial containment approval, granted last August, was for testing in the laboratory only and subject to strict biosecurity controls. The next containment application for field trials can only be progressed once the new organism application currently with the EPA has been approved.
When A Lighter Touch was formed the lack of biopesticide registrations in New Zealand was identified as a key missing ingredient needed to achieve the goal of supporting growers to move from agrichemical reliance to more sustainable crop protection management tools. The biopesticide case study is one of several pieces of work ALT has undertaken to facilitate understanding and improvement of the regulatory pathway, with the aim to provide growers with easier and more timely access to new tools and solutions.
