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Golden Valley, Minnesota
December 10, 2008
Syngenta
today unveiled preliminary data from its 2008 trials designed to
evaluate the efficacy of its new broad-spectrum lepidopteran
corn pest control trait, event MIR162. The company also
announced that the new trait will be known as the Agrisure
Viptera™ trait.
The Agrisure Viptera trait recently was granted registration
approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Pending all remaining regulatory and key import approvals,
hybrids containing the Agrisure Viptera trait are anticipated to
be available for planting in spring 2010.
Agronomy Marketing Manager Bruce Battles presented the results
during the American Seed Trade Association's Corn & Sorghum
Research Conference in Chicago, IL. Citing replicated trials in
Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas and North Carolina, Battles
pointed to an average yield advantage of 10.2 bu/A for Agrisure®
CB/LL/RW hybrids stacked with the Agrisure Viptera trait vs.
isolines containing only the Agrisure CB/LL/RW stack1.
Battles said the trials focused on evaluating the effect of the
Agrisure Viptera trait in environments with normal corn earworm
pressure. “In addition to measuring yield, we also measured ear
damage from naturally occurring pests such as corn earworm,”
Battles said. “There was a clear correlation between the level
of ear damage and yield increases in the Agrisure CB/LL/RW check
vs. the Agrisure Viptera stack. We saw the biggest yield
advantages in plots that had higher levels of corn earworm
pressure. While the average yield advantage for all plots
weighed in at 10.2 bushels per acre, the yield advantage in
plots with corn earworm infestation rose to 16.3 bushels per
acre.”
Battles said the trials highlighted the challenges of dealing
with lepidopteran pests beyond European corn borer, a spectrum
of insects Syngenta refers to as the multi-pest complex. “We
located trials in a variety of geographies to pick up a variety
of infestations,” he said. “And we faced the same situation as
our growers face – not all plots had infestations of the same
pests, and we could not predict the insect infestations we did
experience.”
“That’s exactly the nature of the multi-pest complex,” Battles
added. “These pests don’t occur in every field every year, but
they do occur frequently. If growers are seeking to maximize
yields, they need to account for the random and unpredictable
nature of these infestations and plan for broad-spectrum insect
protection at all crop stages.”
The Agrisure Viptera trait will only be available stacked with
either the Agrisure 3000GT trait stack for control of European
corn borer and corn rootworm with glyphosate and glufosinate
herbicide tolerance, or the Agrisure GT/CB/LL stack for control
of European corn borer and glyphosate and glufosinate herbicide
tolerance.
Agrisure Corn Traits are a system of high-performance in-seed
traits providing resistance to European corn borer (the Agrisure
CB/LL trait) and corn rootworm (the Agrisure RW trait) and
conferring tolerance to glyphosate herbicides (the Agrisure GT
trait) and glufosinate herbicides (the Agrisure CB/LL trait).
Growers seeking a triple stack of all Agrisure insect protection
and herbicide tolerance offerings can get full protection and
weed control flexibility in the Agrisure 3000GT trait stack,
which combines all current Agrisure traits.
Syngenta is a world-leading agribusiness committed to
sustainable agriculture through innovative research and
technology. The company is a leader in crop protection, and
ranks third in the high-value commercial seeds market. Sales in
2007 were approximately $9.2 billion. Syngenta employs over
21,000 people in more than 90 countries. Syngenta is listed on
the Swiss stock exchange (SYNN) and in New York (SYT). Further
information is available at
www.syngenta.com.
Agrisure®, Viptera™ and the Syngenta logo are trademarks of a
Syngenta Group Company.
1 All Syngenta strip trial comparisons are completed with
hybrids of similar RMs, adjusted for moisture to +/- 3 points
and of equivalent trait classes unless otherwise noted. Isolines
used for comparison featured identical genetics to the test
hybrids but did not contain the Agrisure Viptera trait.
Replicated trials consisted of six locations, with six
replications per trial site. Results were averaged across all
six locations. Trials were located in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska,
Kansas and North Carolina. |
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