CRC for Plant Biosecurity - RSS

Scientists planting new research ideas in Queensland

K.Scott — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:16:10 +0000

Media Release: 25 September 2009

Australia’s top plant biosecurity scientists gathered on the Sunshine Coast this week to discuss current and future research activities which will help safeguard Australia’s agriculture industries.

The Cooperative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity held a ‘Science Exchange’ to bring together researchers, government and plant industry representatives from across the country.

The CRC’s chief executive officer, Dr Simon McKirdy said the meeting was important to facilitate engagement between key plant biosecurity stakeholders.

‘Our science is driven by the national research priority of safeguarding Australia’s agricultural industries and retaining our reputation as an exporter of clean and pest free products,’ said Dr McKirdy.

‘This forum provides an opportunity for researchers to discuss their research and also a platform for industry and government regulators to learn more about the science and how it underpins a strong biosecurity system,’ he said.

Chairman of OrdGuard and grower from Kununurra, Mr Lachlan Dobson said it was encouraging to hear about the innovative research which will provide industry with better tools to manage harmful plant pests and diseases.

‘It’s becoming increasingly more important for farmers to monitor for pests and diseases and implement biosecurity measures. An incursion in a plant crop can cost a grower thousands of dollars to eradicate and a long time to get the crop back to its original health,’ he said.

‘Listening to the scientists today provides me with confidence that the research being conducted will help the agriculture industry better manage potential biosecurity risks,’ said Mr Dobson.

Awards were also presented to research teams who displayed excellence in areas of innovation, collaboration and impact on industry. Queensland led projects were recipients of two awards for their contribution to Australia’s plant biosecurity scientific research.

Dr Gary Kong from Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation won an international collaboration award for leading a project that has developed two online tools which enable plant pests and diseases to be identified remotely and in real time using the internet.

Dr Peter Whittle and his research team from Queensland University of Technology won the impact on industry award for a project which developed a robust surveillance method to monitor the environment for harmful pests and diseases.

International fruit fly management study tour

VANMEURSA — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:27:22 +0000

Olivia travelled to Central (Guatemala) and North America (Mexico, Florida and Hawaii) to obtain knowledge and skills in mass-rearing techniques and quality management of parasitoid wasp production. She also obtained skills and techniques in procedures for inundative release of parasitoid species used in the America’s which include Australian species, hence the methods have direct value to Australian work. Olivia also engaged in novel approaches for sterile fruit fly rearing and observed methods used internationally that may be of use in Australia such as eclosion towers which reduce labour and inefficiencies in rearing.

This study tour had great relevance to two objectives of the Cooperative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity (CRCNPB). In terms of technical contribution the tour allowed the development of a new skill in parasitoid rearing and release which is very limited in Australia. The skills learnt also address Program 4: Impact Management by developing tools to underpin optimal and novel control strategies and Program 1: Preparedness & Prevention through enabling an increased level of preparedness for potential emergency plant pest incursions as we now have a better understanding of parasitoid biology and ecology.

This tour benefitted Olivia’s professional development as it was of direct relevance to her current collaborative research program. Olivia was exposed to first-hand in-sights into the mass rearing of parasitoids, which has allowed her to bring back a swathe of ideas to assist in and optimise the development of a future mass-rearing facility in Australia. A particular highlight was visiting the Planta Moscafruit, Tapachula, Mexico (Fig. 1), which mass-rears over 50 million parasitoids/week (Fig. 2). It has also allowed Olivia to bring back ideas for advanced technologies for rearing out sterile fruit flies, in addition to the mass release of fruit flies, including chilled adult aerial release (Fig. 3). The flies are chilled in order to package a larger number into a smaller space and to prevent the fruit flies from trampling one another.

Olivia also used this opportunity to strengthen and foster linkages with a number of the international research group’s expert in fruit fly management, particularly the use of biological control and sterile insect technique (SIT). There is certainly scope for future collaborative research in these areas.

The development of a new fruit fly management tool for Australia based on inundative parasitoid releases offers scope to markedly increase the efficacy of emergency plant pest incidents including the eradication of B. tryoni outbreaks and incursion management for exotic fruit fly species. There is every possibility that those states currently controlling B. tryoni may serve to benefit from and use inundative releases of parasitoid wasps. In addition, there is potential for some parasitoid species to be used in Australia to augment the SIT for control of the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata in addition to B. tryoni. Another potential benefit of this study is that parasitoids are being considered for inundative/augmentive release in New Caledonia and other Pacific Island nations where Queensland fruit fly exists. There is, therefore, the potential for commercial production in Australia selling to these regions. The tour was also a valuable opportunity to raise the profile of CRCNPB research.

Fig.1. Dr Olivia Reynolds (EH Graham Centre – NSW DPI), Professor Geoff Gurr (EH Graham Centre - CSU) and PhD student Jennifer Spinner (CRCNPB) at the Planta Moscafruit, Tapachula, Mexico.

Fig. 2. The mass-rearing of over 50million parasitoids/week at the Planta Moscafruit, Tapachula, Mexico. Fruit fly larvae are placed en masse in a canister (a), which is then inserted into a cage (b) where the fruit fly larvae are exposed to the parasitoids (c).

Fig. 3. The aerial release of chilled adult sterile fruit flies in Guatemala. Loading of the chilled adult flies in a chilled container (holding 9 million fruit flies), from a refrigerated truck into the hull of an aircraft (a) for subsequent aerial release (b) by an automated auger controlled by an operator in the aircraft (c). The fruit flies are sent out through a shute underneath the aircraft and warm up as they fall and fly before reaching the ground.

CRC70085: Personal Digital Assistants (phase two)

VANMEURSA — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:01:24 +0000

Program

Delivery and Adoption

This project will allow the rapid and efficient use of all surveillance data to maintain and protect the Australian grains market and potentially other agricultural/horticultural industries.

Making it Really Simple to stay informed

VANMEURSA — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:35:26 +0000

Everyday there are millions of online authors writing about billions of different topics. It can take hours to trawl through all of this information to ensure you are kept up-to-date with the news you want.

The CRC has implemented two methods for our readers to receive information directly from the CRC as it's published, which saves you continually coming back to check the website for updates. The first method is through emails directly to your inbox and the second is through RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds.

Latest headlines by email

To receive the latest headlines to your inbox, click on ‘News Feeds' on the CRC's homepage and then click on the subscribe button circled below. You will then receive a hyperlink which will ask for your email address. Once you've entered this, you will receive an email to activate your subscription. It's that simple!

RSS feeds

The symbols that represent RSS include:

To access the CRC's RSS feeds you need to set up a ‘news reader.' A news reader will allow you to pull in feeds from multiple sources, as this software monitors the websites you are subscribed to and aggregates all of the feeds to the one place. You may already have a news reader built into your Microsoft Outlook folders which would look like this.

If you do not have an inbuilt news reader you can sign up for or download one. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications. For a list of RSS readers, check: http://blogspace.com/rss/readers

All you have to do once you have chosen a reader is to add feeds to it. To add the CRC's news feed, click on ‘News Feeds' on the CRC's homepage and then click on the subscribe button circled below.

You will then be taken to a page where you can choose how you want to subscribe.

If, for example you choose to add the feed to your igoogle page, it will look like this:

We hope you find either or both of these a useful tool to keep up-to-date with the CRC's research activities. If you have any questions regarding the CRC's email updates or RSS feeds, please contact our Communications Officer, Andrew Crichton.

CRC30014: PDA-Assisted Surveillance (phase one)

K.Scott — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 06:57:02 +0000

Program

Surveillance

Recently completed project CRC30014 PDA - Assisted Surveillance has made it possible for field collected surveillance information to be captured digitally.

CRC40006: Russian Wheat Aphid

K.Scott — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:00:11 +0000

Program

Impact Management