One of the oldest Working Groups within Global IOBC is certainly the International Working Group on Ostrinia (IWGO). The group was started during an International Congress in Moscow in 1968, but the roots reach back to the USA regional project on
Ostrinia already begun in 1951. IWGO was established through this USA regional project. The founders of the group were D. HADZISTEVIC (Yugoslavia), who had the original idea of founding a group of international cooperation, H.C. CHIANG (USA), who brought the ideas of the USA regional project into the group, I.D. SHAPIRO (Russia of the USSR), T. PERJU (Romania), C. KANIA (Poland) and B. DOLINKA (Hungary). All were well-known researchers or maize-breeders. The group was originally organized so that each member country had an official "member" representative and all other participants were classified as "associate members". Researchers who took part in meetings from time to time were called "guest members".
The original idea of IWGO was to exchange inbred lines within the group and test these lines for resistance against the most important maize pest throughout the world, the European corn borer (ECB),
Ostrinia nubilalis Hubner. The results of this breeding program were to made available to all member countries. Up to now, three synthetics resistant breeding lines to ECB have been developed and released (IWGO 1, 2, and 3, both late and early). Most of the results of this testing program were published earlier by IWGO. As the membership of the group increased, interests in other aereas of ECB research expanded. A pheromone project was established by France (INRA). The influence of other pests on maize became more and more important over time and colleagues from Asia wanted to include problems with
Ostrina furnacalis and southern European members brought research work concerning
Sesamia nonagrioides into the group. The appearance of
Diabrotica virgifera virgifera in Europe (Serbia) in 1992 became a further matter of discussion within the group. This appearance was so important that even a subgroup within IWGO was founded in 1996. Later on, Elateridae (wireworms) management options are discussed within the group. Since 2017 and based on the rapid spread of the fall armyworm (FAW),
Spodoptera frugiperda, scientific sessions on FAW were attended by delegates from many countries in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Consequently, it was decided that a global FAW sub-group should be established under the IWGO umbrella with the aim to facilitate the coordination of international and national research efforts in the field of augmentative, conservation and classical biological control of FAW. Therefore, within the last several years IWGO has become more and more a working group on all maize insect pest problems and has gained an international reputation for it integrated pest management approaches.
The IWGO working group has held almost 30 annual (since 1980 biannual) meetings, most of which have taken place in Europe but recently have been hosted in other continents to reflect the global nature of the organisation.
Prof. H.C. CHIANG was the first president (convenor) of the group and held this position until 1982. The group elected P. ANGLADE (Bordeaux, France) as the new president in 1982 and he served until 1993. In 1994, Harald K. BERGER (Vienna, Austria) was elected as the convenor of this international group. As the group and the topics discussed grew, the necessity of the nomination of vice presidents (Sub- or Co-Convenors) came up and Dr. Rich EDWARDS was elected as the Co-Convenor. Since February 2005, Dr. Ulrich KUHLMANN (Delémont, Switzerland) took over the responsibility for leading IWGO. Three years later in 2008, Dr Zhenying WANG joint as a Co-Convenor and in 2011 Dr. Thomas SAPPINGTON replaced the Co-Convenor Dr. Rich Edwards. Since 2023, Dr. Feng ZHANG and Dr. Dominic REISIG have graciously agreed to take on the Co-Convenorships.
IWGO is a Global-IOBC Working Group, which is now a well-established large international working group that now deals with all matters of maize pests and pest resistance. The group is open to all scientists with interest in working within an international group (with familiar and personal contact among the members).
IWGO - PRESIDENTS / Convenors:
1969 - 1982
Huai.C. CHIANG (St. Paul, Minnesota, USA)
1982 - 1993
Pierre ANGLADE (Bordeaux, France)
1994 - 2004
Harald K. BERGER (Vienna, Austria)
Since 2005
Ulrich KUHLMANN (Delémont, Switzerland)
