Bioassay procedures and mass production technology of entomopathogenic bacteria

This chapter comprises in a descriptive way the basic procedures needed to evaluate and produce the entomopathogenic bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis as it is the most popular biological control agent. The production of the entomopathogenic bacterium involves isolation, bioassays procedures, massive production and formulation process for finally being applied to the field. Bioassays are important to determine toxic activity and for choosing the best entomopathogenic strains toward different insect pests. The culture media, inoculums, and other conditions such as pH and temperature, are essential factors for mass production technology. Different bioassay procedures such as diet-based bioassays, disk bioassays, green house bioassays and field tests are included with their main characteristics and applicability. In the same way, the mass production in a fermentation process is described as well as formulation development for the field application.