Overseas Biological Control Laboratories

Fighting Invasive Species

The Overseas Biological Control Laboratories (OBCLs) support the domestic research carried out by ARS with the aim of finding solutions to agricultural challenges that affect Americans every day from field to table. These laboratories work in countries which are the native homes of many plants and insects that are invasive in the United States. OBCL researchers identify and evaluate natural enemies of these invasive pests, with the goal of limiting or eliminating the invasives and reducing the damage they do to U.S. agriculture and public health.

The European Biological Control Laboratory is an ARS facility with locations in France and Greece.

Two other OBCLs are operated through cooperative agreements with partner organizations in Argentina and Australia.

The major benefits of these OBCLs include the continuous overseas presence of experts and collection points in regions where invasive organisms have often evolved, the ability to work with invasive pests outside of the United States to protect U.S. agriculture, the regional expansion of exploration and collection, and the development of new and mutually beneficial international collaborations on biological control efforts.

Learn more about the European Biological Control Laboratory's research that could revolutionize surveillance of sand flies that spread parasitic disease in ARS's Discoveries 2020 report.