What Is Beauveria bassiana strain HF23?
Beauveria bassiana strain HF23 is a fungus used as a microbial pest control agent to control houseflies in poultry production houses. This fungus causes a fatal disease in insects known as white muscardine disease. The HF23 strain of B. bassiana was originally isolated from a housefly in the United States and is reported to be quite specific to houseflies and related flies associated with livestock facilities. The end-use product, Balence ES, is a commercial class insecticide product that contains B. bassiana strain HF23 as the active ingredient. While application in poultry production houses may be considered an indoor use, the chicken manure exposed to the application of Balence ES inside the poultry production house is commonly rendered into fertilizer and used outdoors on agricultural crops. Therefore, this outdoor use was also considered in the human health and the environmental risk assessment.
