Risk Assessment of Microbial Pesticides

Edited by:
Shannon Borges: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, USA
Philip Marx-Stoelting: German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Germany
Abdulrahim T. Alkassab: Julius Kühn-Institut, Germany

Submission Status: Open | Submission Deadline: 31 January 2024

Environmental Health is calling for submissions to our Collection on Risk Assessment of Microbial Pesticides. Microbial pesticides are part of a sustainable agriculture strategy, but due to their unique nature, tools for assessing hazards and risks require different approaches compared to chemical pesticides. This Collection is focused on problem formulation and finding solutions to advance microbial hazard testing, which will help to inform regulatory decisions about microbial pesticides.

This Collection supports and amplifies research related to the following Sustainable Development Goals: 2 – Zero Hunger, 3 - Good Health and Well-being, 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation, 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production, 13 – Climate Action, 14 – Life Below Water, 15 – Life on Land.

Image credits: © ollo / Getty Images / iStock

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Meet the Editors

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Shannon Borges: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, USA

Shannon Borges is a supervisor within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Pesticide Programs, Biopesticides and Pollution Prevention Division where she advises on all aspects of biopesticide risk assessments. She is an expert in risk assessment of microbial pesticides and has spearheaded efforts to advance innovation in microbial pesticide testing both within the U.S. and internationally. She is Chair of the OECD Expert Group on Biopesticides and Co-Chair of the International Commission on Plant-Pollinator Relationships (ICP-PR) Microbials and Bees Sub-Working Group.

Philip Marx-Stoelting: German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Germany

Philip Marx-Stoelting, Dr. rer. nat., ERT, is serving at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) as a scientific director heading the unit ‘testing and assessment strategies’ in the pesticides safety department and the BfR working group on endocrine disruptors. He is involved in several large European research projects on NAM development including PARC, where he is leading the work-package ‘hazard assessment’. He is involved in several expert panels on EU and international level and chairing the 3R working group of the German Society for Toxicology (GT).

Abdulrahim T. Alkassab: Julius Kühn-Institut, Germany

Abdulrahim T. Alkassab works at the Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI), Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants. His research activities focus on bee health, i.e., honey bees, bumblebees and solitary bees, in relation to the exposure to pesticides, including bio-pesticides, and nutrition status. He is active in the area of risk assessment of plant protection products on bees. He is also active in international expert groups, including within the ICP-PR, OECD and EFSA. He serves as reviewer in various international journals and member of editorial board in the journal “Gesunde Pflanzen”.

About the Collection

Microbial pesticides are part of a sustainable agriculture strategy, but due to their unique nature, tools for assessing hazards and risks require different approaches compared to chemical pesticides. This Collection is focused on problem formulation and finding solutions to advance microbial hazard testing, which will help to inform regulatory decisions about microbial pesticides.

Microbial pesticides are valuable alternatives to conventional chemical pesticides that are safer for humans and the environment. However, significant challenges exist for non-target organism hazard testing and coupled with a lack of clear guidance toward robust testing methods, these challenges can result in risk assessments with complex uncertainties. Such complexities can lead to delays in bringing innovation to agriculture and the bioeconomy and increased resource costs.

Additionally, there is growing interest in reducing animal testing in relation to pesticide registration. Significant work is underway to research and develop new approach methodologies as alternatives for traditional human health testing with conventional pesticides. However, little work has been done to develop such alternatives for microbial pesticides. Microbial pesticide testing must keep pace with these innovations; otherwise, these products could lose a significant competitive market advantage.

This Collection brings together original research and review articles to outline the issues, identify knowledge gaps, and highlight advances toward improvements in microbial pesticide hazard testing and risk assessment.

The Collection Risk Assessment of Microbial Pesticides also relates and advances research surrounding the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which has been adopted by all United Nations Member States. Specific SDGs for this Collection include: 2 – Zero Hunger, 3 – Good Health and Well-being, 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation, 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production, 13 – Climate Action, 14 – Life Below Water, 15 – Life on Land.

There are currently no articles in this collection.

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original research articles and review articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Risk Assessment of Microbial Pesticides " from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer-review process. The peer-review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.