On the invitation of Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, Professor Liu Shusheng and Wang Xiaowei from the Institute of Insect Science attended the annual meeting of Cassava Whitefly Project in London, United Kingdom from December 6th to 12th,2015.
Cassava is the third most important staple food in the tropics. Since the 1990s, an unprecedented increase in the infestation of the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, has caused significant damage to cassava. Production losses in nine East and Central African countries have been estimated as high as 47% and the areas affected are continuing to expand, resulting in annual losses of more than US$1.25 billion.
The African Cassava Whitefly Project seeks to understand the cause of super-abundant cassava whitefly populations in East and Central Africa and build the foundations for developing new control solutions. This project was officially approved in October, 2014 and includes 13 research group from in countries including Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, USA, Colombia, Israel, Australia, Spain, UK, France and China.
This is the first annual meeting of this project. During the meeting, the research progresses and challenges were discussed in detail. The project will accelerate the breeding of whitefly resistant varieties and developing of new vector control methods. The involvement of Zhejiang University will make important contributions to this project and improve the research in the area of whitefly-begomovirus interactions and invasion biology.
Photo 1: Professor Liu Shu-Sheng (right), Professor Andrew Westby (Direct of the Natural Resource Institute, Greenwich University) and Professor John Colvin (Project Leader of the African Cassava Whitefly Project, left) in the reception ceremony.
Photo 2: Professor Wang Xiao-Wei did an oral presentation during the annual meeting.