IOBC-WPRS

Report 19th IOBC-ICOC meeting, Dresden, Germany
(10-11 September 2024)

The 19th biannual meeting of the Integrated Control in Oilseed Crops Working Group took place at Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) on 10-11 September 2024. It was the first live meeting after six years (the previous meeting in person was organized at the University of Zagreb, Croatia in 2018). In 2020 the meeting at the University of Rennes, France was fully organized, but it was moved twice due to Covid-19 and finally took place online. In Dresden we could finally meet in person. The local organiser was Prof. Jutta Ludwig Müller (TUD). The group convenors were Malgorzata Jedryczka, Institute of Plant Genetics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań, Poland and Samantha Cook, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, UK (the sub-convenor of the entomology sub-group). The IOBC liaison officer Dr. Hanna Friberg, Swedish Agricultural University, Uppsala also participated in the meeting.

The programme was composed of two joint sessions and 3 thematic sessions for each of the subgroups. The entomology subgroup had the following sessions:

1. Monitoring, decision support & control.
2. Breeding oilseeds for resistance to insect pests.
3. Crop and habitat management for pest prevention.

In the pathology subgroup, the session topics were devoted to the main pathogens of oilseeds:

1. Blackleg and Verticillium stripe
2. Sclerotinia stem rot
3. Clubroot

The pathologists were able to join the International Clubroot Workshop which took place at the same location on the following day (12th September 2024). This was an additional pathology meeting, organized separately from IOBC by Dr. Elke Diederichsen, Free University Berlin, Germany and Prof. Jutta Ludwig-Müller, TUD, but it was thematically cohesive.

In total there were 76 submissions, including 56 oral presentations and 18 posters plus two introductory talks on IOBC and ICOC, given by the convenors, local organizer and liaison officer. The first joint session contained four invited lectures, with two on entomology and two on pathology of oilseed rape, showing the latest achievements from European (German) and Canadian perspectives. The second joint session included presentation on topics of common interest to entomologists and pathologist, and presenting the general advancements in improvement of oilseed rape. The icing on the cake was a talk on video abstracts, given by Theodore Simmons, the professional film maker from Taskscape, UK, who inspired us to create a video about our working group… watch this space!

The meeting was attended by 93 registered participants from 13 countries, including 11 countries from Europe (Sweden, Germany, France, Poland, Czech Rep., Estonia, Croatia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom) as well as Australia and Canada.

The presentations were published in preceedings (IOBC WPRS Bulletin volume 172/2024) and was handed to all participants of the meeting on pendrive. The Bulletin contains 63 abstracts and 13 extended abstracts. It comprises 186-pages of the submissions and 9 introductory pages (general information and list of contents). In contrast to the previous Bulletin (vol. 157/2022), this volume also contains the abstracts of the International Clubroot Workshop (15 abstracts and extended abstracts). The Editors were: Samantha M. Cook, Elke Diederichsen, Malgorzata Jedryczka, Kevin M. King, Jutta Ludwig Müller and Malgorzata Wiewióra. The latter person from the editorial board is the student of the Poznan School of Arts; not only did she help in manuscript formatting, but also she has illustrated the volume with thematic icons, making it unique. On top of the IOBC WPRS Bulletin the Editor-in-Chiefs of the journal Pest Management Science decided to create a Special Issue devoted to “Next Generation Integrated Control in Oilseed Rape”. The issue will be open on 20 September, and it will accept all relevant submissions on this topic until the end of January 2025. Submissions are welcome from all members of the research community, not just participants in our meeting, but we hope that it will raise the profile of our Working Group. The Guest Editors will be: Samantha M. Cook (UK), Małgorzata Jedryczka (PL), Kevin M. King (UK) and Michael Rostás (DE). Offers of at least 15 submissions were confirmed to the Editors.

At this meeting the current convenors (Gosia and Sam) decided to hand over convenorship of the Working Group.





The candidates standing in the election were both pathologists:

1. Nazanin Zamani Noor, Julius Kuhn Institute, Braunschweig, Germany - selected
2. Kevin M. King, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, UK

Nazanin Zamani-Noor was voted in as the next group convenor. Additionally, Dr. Ivan Juran from the University of Zagreb, Croatia was unanimously approved for the position of the sub-convenor, representing the entomology group.



Both previous convenors publicly promised to help in ICOC Working Group activities. Dr. Birger Koopmann, University of Göttingen, Germany offered to continue his help as the webmaster. The group has its own website https://wwwuser.gwdguser.de/~iobc/index.php in addition to the official one maintained by Madeleine Buehler https://iobc-wprs.org/expert-group/integrated-control-in-oilseed-crops-icoc/

In addition to the very fruitful scientific programme, the participants had an interesting city tour by bus and a social dinner. We enjoyed the visit and the guided tour with guides in historic outfits. We were also one of the last crossing the Carola bridge, before it collapsed later that evening, which makes us a very fortunate working group! The next group meeting is planned for 2026 in Sweden (organisers: Dr. Hanna Friberg and Dr. Ann Charlotte Wallenhammar). The meeting after that is tentatively scheduled for 2028 in Prague, Czech Republic (organisers: Lenka Burketova and Barbora Jindrichova, Institute of Experimental Botany); there are also hints about the meeting in 2030! The group is in good hands of young but experienced new convenors, being helped by the previous convenors. The status and future of the group seems secure. Moreover, the group is cohesive and consists of researchers who are also friends to each other. Our meetings are very educational but also a sheer pleasure and we hope to advertise this to attract additional new members.

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