Direct, in field detection and analysis of Botrytis spores

Botrytis cinerea causes more than US$10 billion annual worldwide economic losses. Botrytis is challenging to control due to the reduced number of fungicide, the absence of new active molecules and the development of fungicide resistance. Moving to integrated pest management can respond well to these issues but it requires the monitoring of spore levels as well as the environmental conditions in order to identify narrow spray windows for effective disease control.For the UK horticultural industry, losses to B. cinerea represents £54m. There is a significant commercial opportunity for a low cost system achieving real time and accurate measurement of farm spore levels. This would allow to drive disease prediction models and to effectively target fungicide spraysBuilding on 8 years of R&D work for MoD customer, we propose to concurrently employ electrostatic collection and LFD technology for direct detection of B. cinerea conidia levels in the field. Using a simple collect and detect approach without the need for manual sample preparation, the proposed solution will offer a low-cost and easy to use detection device for real time actionable insights. The proposed proof of concept project will generate key use-case data which will drive potential new IP, inform commercialisation strategy and form the basis of a full CERES project proposal.