Evaluation of OrNV impact against CRB on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, 2018-2023

Coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB), Oryctes rhinoceros, was first recorded in 2015 from Honiara, Solomon Islands (SIBC 2015) and has spread to a subset of islands within each province (Marshall et al. 2023)

Historically, invasive CRB populations in the Pacific have been controlled mainly by the introduction of its co-evolved pathogen, Oryctes nudivirus (OrNV), complemented by sanitation to remove CRB breeding sites. Once these control measures were established, CRB populations have been suppressed sufficiently to prevent significant economic losses (Huger 2005, Bedford 2013). The recent wave of CRB invasion into the Pacific is not susceptible to infection by the OrNV strains present in the region (Marshall et al. 2017) and populations are again high enough to cause significant damage in the affected regions.

As part of the MFAT-funded response to CRB, the AgResearch project team has worked with project partners in Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Vanuatu to test novel strains of OrNV against their local CRB populations. The aim was to identify an effective strain(s) to target the new invasive populations and to restore biological control of CRB. This work is ongoing and is reported elsewhere (Marshall et al. 2021).