Contamination of cereal commodities with mycotoxins represents a significant hazard to consumer health and is receiving increasing attention from food safety authorities and legislators. The most important mycotoxins in small cereal grains in Europe are trichothecenes, including nivalenol,...

Effective environmental stress tolerance of inocula can lead to improved establishment, which could contribute significantly to improving efficacy of biological control agents (BCAs) in the phyllosphere environment. There are thus some key questions which need to be addressed: (a) can the...

This book presents topics on the development, improvement and commercialization of fungi for the biological control of pests, weeds and diseases which are of economic importance. Common themes such as production, formulation and application of technologies, biosafety, risk assessment and...

This chapter presents a brief overview of some of the social and economic reasons for developing fungal biological control agents (BCAs), such as Acremonium diospyri, Alternaria zinniae, Alternaria eichhorniae, Alternaria cassiae, Cercospora rodmanii, Chondrosterium purpureum, Phytophthora...

The chapter discusses the abiotic stress (such as water stress) tolerance of xerotolerant and xerophilic fungal biological control agents; ecophysiological manipulation of endogenous reserves (sugars and polyols) in inocula for improved growth, germination and viability under water stress...

This chapter briefly discusses the technical issues, including improved speed of action of the fungal biological control agent (BCA); greater ecological fitness; cost-effective production of fungal BCAs; improved formulation of fungal BCAs; effective targeting of fungal BCAs (such as Metarhizium...

The current and future status of commercial fungal biological control agents (such as Trichoderma harzianum, T. viride, Gliocladium virens and Coniothyrium minitans), particularly on their products, are reviewed. Examples of specific biological control agents and their products, as well as their...

An overview of is presented of the major factors (pathogen, insect host and environment) influencing the efficacy of hypomycetous fungi for biological control. Examples are given of the successful use of entomopathogenic Hypomycetes (including Aschersonia spp., Beauveria bassiana, B. brongniartii,...

This chapter describes ecological case histories for a number of species belonging to order Entomophthorales (Massospora spp., Neozygites spp., Strongwellsea castrans, Entomophthora muscae, Entomophaga grylli, Entomophthora thripidum and Conidiobolus spp.) and discusses the life cycle, taxonomy,...

The development of V. chlamydosporium, a facultative parasite and rhizosphere-colonizing fungus, as a potential biological control agent against the root-knot nematodes, M. incognita, M. javanica and M. arenaria, is reviewed. The taxonomy, distribution and host range of V. chlamydosporium, and its...