Pathogenicity of Ethiopian isolates of Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana against the tsetse fly, Glossina morsitans morsitans

Abstract

ntomopathogenic fungi, M. anisopliae EE, M. anisopliae MM, B. bassiana FF, B. bassiana GG, and B. Bassiana AK isolated from different sources in Ethiopia were evaluated against the tsetse fly, Glossina morsitans morsitans in the laboratory. M. anisopliae isolates EE and MM caused mortalities of 96.67% and 73.33%, respectively while B. bassiana isolates coded as FF, GG, and AK showed percent moralities of 75.00%, 63.33% and 53.33%, respectively. B. bassiana FF was significantly better than B. Bassiana AK (P0.05). Spore production of presumably promising isolates, M. anisopliae MM and EE, was determined on solid substrates, whole grains of rice, wheat, barley and sorghum. Both isolates grew best on rice giving a yield of 1.42 x 10 the power of 9 spores/grain of rice for M. anisopliae MM and 1.62 x 10 the power of 9 spore/gram or rice for M. anisopliae EE. No relationship was observed between mosture content of grain types and spore yield (P0.05). The potential of the isolates for the control of tsetse flies is discussed.