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In total, delegates could attend 68 papers, 25 posters, three workshops and mingle with delegates.
Situated in the very heart of Europe, the choice of Budapest was ideal: This capital city lays claim to two of the largest rat and cockroach control programs ever undertaken plus. And, as Dr. Dániel Bajomi, chairman of the organizing committee, reminded delegates: “It was in Budapest in 1974 that the rodenticide wax block was invented and started to be manufactured on a commercial scale.”
While rodents remain a key urban pest, two current hot topics demanded center stage at the event — namely vector-borne diseases and bed bugs.
THE RISE OF VECTOR-BORNE DISEASES. Opening the conference, Dr. Evelyn Depoortere from the recently established European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) based in Stockholm, Sweden, explained that the climate and environmental changes being predicted by experts will alter the risk to Europe from vector borne diseases.
“We are likely to see the spread of diseases such as tick-borne encephalitis and West Nile fever in places where they have not been seen before,” Depoortere said.
Globalization, and the increased travel and trade that it brings, is also quickening the pace at which diseases can spread to new areas. An example of this is the international spread of the Aedes albopictus mosquito (also known as the Asian Tiger mosquito), which has been responsible for outbreaks of the disease chikungunya fever. This species has spread from Asia to Africa, the Americas and now to some parts of Europe, including most of Italy. In the summer of 2007, a traveler from India introduced chikungunya fever to the mosquitoes in the area of Ravenna, Italy, and there was an outbreak affecting nearly 250 people.
Jonathan Peck, Killgerm Chemicals, but here representing the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) from London, highlighted the challenges facing the environmental health industry — notably climate change, urban sprawl and changes in people’s living habits, particularly the problems caused by international travel.
Peck announced the publication of Public Health Significance of Urban Pests, from the World Health Organization.
BED BUGS A UNIVERSAL INTERNATIONAL PROBLEM. The increased level of international travel was also highlighted as one of the primary causes of the now world-wide problem with bed bugs. Presentations from three continents reiterated an all-too-familiar scenario — what has caused this global outbreak and how can control be achieved? Loss of available insecticide products due to withdrawals caused by regulatory issues was detailed, coupled with a high level of resistance to most of those products that do remain. A whole barrage of alternative control methods has sprung up, particularly within the consumer sector, but the scientific efficacy of some of these was felt to be highly dubious.
On a positive note, Dr. Reiner Pospischil from Bayer CropScience, Monheim Germany, revealed that products to which resistance exists may, when used separately, nonetheless produce good efficacy when tank-mixed.
Deltamethrin combined with natural pyrethrins plus the synergist piperonyl butoxide was one example. Work at Sheffield University by Richard Naylor using the juvenile hormone analogue (S)-methoprene had produced good results. Better known for its activity with Pharaoh ants, this IGR offers a way forward. Recognizing the length of time it requires to achieve control, its use combined with a residual spray, such as bendiocarb, proved a talking point, especially as the IGR may heighten bed bug susceptibility to the conventional insecticide.
A NOTE OF REALISM. Although laboratory efficacy of these mixtures is encouraging, the need for registration means that their commercial availability is still some way off.
More radical methods were also presented. Notably the introduction of bed bug detection dogs or a “whole block” fumigation treatment with sulfuryl fluoride as presented by Dr. Dini Miller, a professor from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
The 7th ICUP will be held in Brazil in 2011.
The author is a partner in Active Solutions and www.PestBusiness.com.