ELECTRON ACCELERATORS FOR STERILE INSECT TECHNIQUE (SIT)

Currently, insect pests reduce global food production by 25-35% annually, as well as damaging forestry. With the help of ionizing radiation, great success has been achieved in eco-friendly pest control through the use of the so-called Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) using electron accelerators.

The technology involves several stages: breeding the insects in special biofactories, then sorting them into females and males, usually at the pupal stage, treating the males with ionizing radiation (without cobalt and cesium isotopes) under controlled conditions, and then releasing them in the target areas. Irradiation damages the chromosomes in the germ cells of insects; as a result, they do not produce offspring when they mate with wild females. The mosquito population will decline if sterile specimens are regularly "repopulated".

The sterilization method using X-rays from electron accelerators does not have the disadvantages inherent in other methods of insect control. In particular, it does not involve the use of insecticides, which can be toxic to the environment, including humans. In addition, experts note the increasing resistance of insects to insecticides, which reduces the effectiveness of such means. Four classes of such substances are used to control malarial mosquitoes - according to WHO, resistance to at least one of them is observed in 68 countries out of 80 affected by malaria and providing data on the incidence of disease. Sterilization by radiation also does not involve introducing alien species into the environment. The latter, being a biological method of insect control, can create problems, as it turned out to be with the ladybug Harmonia axyridis: it turned out to be an agricultural pest itself, damaging grapes and fruit trees.

In describing the SIT, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) refers to the fact that the International Plant Protection Convention lists sterile insects as beneficial organisms. Interruption of the reproductive cycle is a species-specific process that has no effect on other insects. There is also no impact on the ecosystem as a whole. Fears about the presence of "genetically modified" mosquitoes in the environment, according to experts, are unfounded, as is the fear of irradiated insects. The experience of radiation sterilization of various goods - for example, medical goods (dressings and suture material, disposable items, etc.) - goes back several decades: it was used as far back as the 1960s, in the early stages of the use of the SIT to control agricultural pests.

"The radiation dose is quite enough only to sterilize insects, and it is minor - the irradiated insects can exist for their entire life cycle. Such insects are not radioactive and pose no threat to humans or the environment. The safety of this sterilization method has been confirmed by numerous IAEA studies.

Beamcomplex produces complexes with electron accelerators for insect sterilization. Our electron accelerators are powered by electricity only and generate isonizing radiation in various doses. Our company has developed the technology and determined the doses needed to sterilize pests.