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. Additionally, Elateridae (wireworms) were a topic of discussion by several member countries. Subsequently, corn borer biology and host response were also studied. More recently biological control has been emphasized. Therefore, within the last several years IWGO has become more and more a working group on all maize insect pest problems. No longer are members just considering the exchanging of inbred lines for testing resistance to the European corn borer.
The group has held 25 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. Several publications have been released, some of which are available through this website. Between 1981 and 2013, the "IWGO - NEWSLETTER" was published in order to link the members and to establish a permanent record of the activities of the working group, distribute information about the members, and to publish the abstracts of papers presented at the congresses. This kind of communication is now carried out via this IWGO website.
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) has been elected as the convenor of this international group. As the group and the topics discussed and researched grew, the necessity of the nomination of vice presidents (Sub- or Co-Convenors) came up and Prof. Dr. Rich EDWARDS was elected as the Vice-Convenor of IWGO and Convenor of the Diabrotica subgroup, which was established in 1996. Since February 2005, Dr. Ulrich KUHLMANN (Delémont, Switzerland) took over the responsibility for leading IWGO. 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)
