Encoate | bioshield™

bioshield™

bioshield™is a biopesticide product sold to New Zealand farmers, specifically to treat a pest called grass grub (Costelytra zealandica).

bioshield™ contains live non-spore forming bacterium (Serratia entomophila) formulated in a EnCoate™ biopolymer coated granule

bioshield™ granules

The final product is a dry granule that can be stored at ambient temperatures for more than 6 months.

The bacterium is produced as a high density culture through aerobic fermentation.

The harvested cells are formulated in a biopolymer gel and coated onto a porous granule substrate called Zeolite. The granules are packaged and can be distributed to warehouses, or directly to farmers, and stored in ambient conditions. Production is in 50MT batches as shown below;

Large scale trials on 20 sites were carried out to show the efficacy of the product.

The effect of bioshield™ was tested in two ways (see below)

1. After 6 weeks from application 23% of the grass grubs in the treated pasture were suffering from disease compared with only 6% in the untreated.

2. Damage by grass grub as shown by brown patches (left) compared with treated pasture (right) was significantly reduced. Hence bioshield™ treatment stops the insects feeding and reduces damage to the pastures.

bioshield™ has been commercialised by Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd. It is applied directly into the soil using a seed drill and has been used successfully by farmers for grass grub control since 2004.

For further information on bioshield™grass grub control, please see the below;

Jackson, T.A. (2007). A novel bacterium for control of grass grub. In Biological Control: A Global Perspective (C. Vincent, M.S. Goettel, and G. Lazarovits (Eds)). CABI publishing, Wallingford, U.K. Pp 160-168