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Impact: Policy / animal welfare. Policy implementation changed and bird welfare improved.
Significance: Our research informed welfare guidelines impacting upon housing of around 200 million laying birds in the EU. Our work has been adopted in EC regulations, and they are pushing all EU member states to ensure all their producers install aerial perches over slatted surfaces.
Beneficiaries: Laying birds, welfare organisations, egg producers, and the general public.
Attribution: Prof. Sparks, Dr. Sandilands (SRUC). Involved collaboration with Prof. Green at Heriot Watt University acting as a vision specialist.
Reach: Guidelines have been adopted in EU legislation.
In 2005/06, Chittka's team evaluated the hazard of imported foreign bumblebees sold for commercial pollination in the UK and demonstrated a severe risk of them displacing native pollinators. The impact of this work for the UK environment is significant, since it resulted in a DEFRA policy review, mandatory licensing for using non-native pollinators by Natural England, and legal changes which place a fine of up £5,000 and/or 6 month custodial sentence for the uncontrolled use of such pollinators. As a result, all major commercial providers of pollinators now sell a UK native subspecies of bumblebee, Bombus terrestris audax.
Research over the last 20 years by Jane Nicklin (née Faull) and her research group has established expertise in fungi, which has led to impacts in three areas: impacts on the licensing of commercial products for the control of insect pests which affect food crops, which have led to a new product being licensed in the US to the benefit of vine growers; impacts on heritage conservation, where the work has benefitted English Heritage, the National Trust and many other conservation groups; and impacts on public awareness and media engagement with science, in particular through her work with Channel 4's How Clean is your House? in 2009.
Research carried out at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) since 1998 has led to the establishment of the ladybird, Chilocorus nigritus, as a viable biocontrol agent (BCA) in UK glasshouses. However, integrated pest management (IPM) programmes involving C. nigritus sometimes inexplicably fail. The specific impact claimed here relates to research at CCCU, in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and the Natural History Museum, which has improved the efficacy of utilising C. nigritus for biocontrol.
Specifically, this research has: 1) optimised protocols for growth and use of C. nigritus, 2) resulted in changes in practice at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, and 3) changed the advice given by the companies selling C. nigritus as a biocontrol agent.
This case study focuses on the impact of work underpinned by Professor Hart's entomological research and includes the major BBC and Discovery/Science Channel documentary, Planet Ant: Life inside the Colony, a children's version, Living on Planet Ant (both presented by Hart) and subsequent secondary impact through two Citizen Science projects. Together these projects have considerably raised public awareness and understanding of ants and their importance. Planet Ant has reached a domestic audience in excess of one million via TV, a large international TV audience, more than 0.6 million via YouTube and was widely and positively reviewed in the national press.
Activities arising from the programme included a debate session on the importance of ants at the Cheltenham Science Festival, 10 weeks of public viewing and guide-led interpretation of the ant colony at the Glasgow Science Centre and national and international magazine articles. Planet Ant led to Hart's central involvement with two large citizen science projects run jointly between him and the UK's Society of Biology. Widely featured in the national press and radio, these have actively engaged more than 20,000 members of the public in primary scientific research, including some 3,500 "super engagers" who have sent on more detailed records and samples. Indeed, one of these projects has been selected by the RCUK for their Concordat anniversary publication as a case study to demonstrate the impact of public engagement.
The impact of this work is that commercial growers of protected fruit, flower and vegetable crops around the world now have a tool to help them to detect the presence of Western Flower Thrips (WFT) in their crops, earlier and at lower numbers than they are currently able to. Growers can also enhance their existing control measures. WFT are insects that cause serious economic loss to growers because of feeding damage and virus transmission. By taking earlier and more effective action against WFT they can reduce plant damage, insecticide use and consequent financial loss.
An academic from the University of Sheffield assisted the USA's Environment Protection Agency (EPA) in producing National (USA) standards, guidelines, and recommendations to drive the efficacy testing of commercial products for controlling bed-bug infestations. Sheffield was approached because of the excellence of Professor Siva-Jothy's research group in establishing key aspects of ecology and behaviour that underpin our knowledge of bed bugs, and therefore, their control. Siva-Jothy agreed to join the EPA Scientific Advisory Panel in 2012 and the regulatory document (SAP# 2012-03) that he was involved in producing is the first to regulate and provide evidence-based guidance for the bed-bug control industry, which is dealing with a population explosion because of inappropriate control practices and chemicals. Bed-bug infestation is a serious and growing health issue in many, and perhaps most, urban population centres worldwide, with litigation costs in the hospitality industry in the USA already exceeding $500M p.a. The new regulations have significant impact on health and welfare and public policy.
Durham has a long-standing record of research into improving the resistance of crop plants towards pests, which includes pioneering work on genetic engineering of plants for insect resistance. The CpTI gene developed in Durham for enhancing insect resistance in transgenic crops has had a major impact on Chinese agriculture, due to the widespread deployment of GM cotton containing genes encoding Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxin and CpTI. The SGK 321 transgenic cotton line was approved for commercial growing in China in 1999, and by the current REF period Bt/CpTI cotton was grown on approximately 0.5 million hectares of land, representing approximately 15% of the total transgenic cotton grown (which in turn represented 67% of total cotton production). The economic value of Bt/CpTI cotton is estimated as approx. £600 million per year.