Pasteuria Bioscience has completed its manufacturing scale up and is successfully producing Pasteuria spores commercially. Pasteuria spp., a natural microbe prevalent in soil, has long been recognized as a promising biological control agent for nematodes. Until now, no one had been able to grow Pasteuria outside of the body of a nematode. Pasteuria Bioscience developed a proprietary manufacturing method to grow and manufacture Pasteuria, which is now being utilized in its first product Econem for sting nematode control in turfgrass.
"Years of hard work have resulted in success," said Kelly Smith, chief technology officer for Pasteuria Bioscience. "We're now able to manufacture high enough Pasteuria spore counts to validate our methods and offer cost-effective commercial products."
With a robust product development effort already underway, validation of the manufacturing method provides assurance for commercialization of additional products based on Pasteuria. Products in development will offer nematode control in agronomic crops such as soybean and cotton, in specialty crops such as strawberry and banana; and in vegetables. The Society of Nematology and other organizations estimate global crop losses due to nematodes at $100 billion annually, making it agriculture’s largest unmet pest control need.
“This achievement allows Pasteuria Bioscience to bring additional products to market quicker," said Dave Duncan, CEO of Pasteuria. "Now we can begin to shift our focus and additional resources to product development and the commercial aspects of the business."
Econem, the first product based on Pasteuria, is being sold in the turfgrass industry in the Southeastern United States. With some nematicides being voluntarily removed
from the market due to safety and environmental concerns, few nematicides exist to meet the demand. The commercialization of Pasteuria-based products such as Econem helps address the need for environmentally safe, cost-effective and reliable nematode control products.
