Using metabarcoding to assess the impact of Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki treatments on biodiversity of Eastern Canadian moths: method development

Funding period: 2022–2024
Lead: Sandrine Picq
Total GRDI funding: $50,443

In order to minimize the impacts of the spruce budworm epidemic in Eastern Canada, large-scale spraying with the biological insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis spp. Kurstaki (Btk) is being conducted. Btk acts only on butterfly caterpillars and is therefore considered both effective and environmentally friendly. However, after years of Btk treatment, there is good reason to question the impact of Btk on the biodiversity of moths, which is essential to the economic and ecological sustainability of our forests.

The current methods used to assess moth biodiversity are time-consuming and costly. Thus, we propose developing different metabarcoding approaches, which will make it possible to rapidly and economically assess the biodiversity of moths by obtaining a diagnostic sequence through high-throughput sequencing that identifies all the species in a sample (collected, for example, with a trap harvest).