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26 - Economics of Classical Biological Control: A Research Perspective
- Edited by Heikki M. T. Hokkanen, University of Helsinki, James M. Lynch, University of Surrey
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- Book:
- Biological Control
- Published online:
- 07 May 2010
- Print publication:
- 24 August 1995, pp 270-276
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Summary
Introduction
The Industries Assistance Commission of Australia, in their review of the economics of agricultural research using the CSIRO Division of Entomology as an example, concluded that the majority of projects were ‘dry holes’ in that they yielded negligible economic return, but that it only needed one or two successes to pay for the entire operation of a large research agency over a decade or more (Marsden et ah, 1980). Biological control was a major area considered in that review and these two principal conclusions are as true for this field as they are for the general case. Less than half of biological control projects produce substantial success, but those that do are the really big winners.
We would like to review briefly the history of application of economics to biological control in Australia and then consider the benefits and costs in a more general sense. There is nothing unique about biological control from an economic viewpoint, though it does have some special properties that assist the process and increase benefits, and others that require particular consideration.
The examples that we propose to cover concern classical (inoculative) or inundative biological control where the natural enemies have been selected from naturally occurring species or biotypes. We do not cover the release of genetically improved natural enemies, whether modified by conventional methods or by genetic engineering. Many of the concepts we canvas are equally relevant to the ‘new technologies’ in terms of assessing the costs of research, the likelihood of success and the ensuing economic benefits. Even the risks are not dissimilar in nature.
24 - An International Perspective for the Release of Genetically Engineered Organisms for Biological Control
- Edited by Heikki M. T. Hokkanen, University of Helsinki, James M. Lynch, University of Surrey
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- Book:
- Biological Control
- Published online:
- 07 May 2010
- Print publication:
- 24 August 1995, pp 253-260
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
During the 1970s a set of powerful biochemical tools became available for the characterization and manipulation of nucleic acids and proteins. These included the ability to sequence DNA segments rapidly, to excise specific segments, to execute changes to the nucleotide sequences, if and as desired, and then to insert the modified segment elsewhere into the genome. During this period it was also demonstrated that genetic material could be transferred into the genomes of foreign organisms and, under appropriate conditions, be expressed thus leading to synthesis of RNA and protein products. For example ‘expression systems’ using eukaryote genes coding for proteins such as interferon, insulin, growth regulators, etc. could be constructed in bacteria, yeast, insect or other eukaryote tissue cultures. Expression of these foreign genes in the host represented a valuable source of such products.
In the latter part of the 1970s and for much of the 1980s, recombinant-DNA technology was largely used as a powerful and creative tool in molecular biology and genetic analysis. It was principally directed towards fundamental questions such as the improvement of our understanding of gene structure and function and for unravelling chromosome organization.
The notion that novel genetic combinations could be created with recombinant-DNA (r-DNA) technology, which would have been unlikely or impossible to arise in nature, caused molecular biologists to pause and consider the risks from inadvertent or deliberate construction of novel organisms that might cause environmental or health problems should they enter the environment by accident or design.