CRC for Plant Biosecurity - surveillance

Spore traps need improvement to fulfil plant biosecurity requirements

CRICHTONA — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:23:36 +0000

Spore traps need improvement to fulfil plant biosecurity requirements

Mobile traps are better than stationary traps for surveillance of airborne fungal spores

CRICHTONA — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:51:28 +0000

Mobile traps are better than stationary traps for surveillance of airborne fungal spores

Case Study 2 - Sampling and surveillance in the grains industry

CRICHTONA — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:42:19 +0000

Case Study 2 - Sampling and surveillance in the grains industry

Developing female lures for improved market access - Final Report

CRICHTONA — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:13:31 +0000

Developing female lures for improved market access - Final Report

CRC30133: Urban surveillance

CRICHTONA — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 01:18:22 +0000

Program

Surveillance

International Working Conference on Stored Product Protection

CRICHTONA — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 03:07:04 +0000

The 10th International Working Conference on Stored Product Protection (IWCSPP) was held in Estoril, Portugal, from 27 June to 2 July 2010. This round of IWCSPP attracted nearly 300 delegates representing countries around the globe where stored products protection is an ongoing issue. The conference included eight scientific sessions, seven workshops and 92 posters.

The delegates were welcomed with a session on overviews of stored products research across the continents, where Dr Pat Collins, the Leader of Post-harvest Integrity Program of the CRCNPB, represented Australia. This was an interesting session, which revealed that in recent years there has been significant disinvestment by governments globally in the area of stored products research.

Europe has been the worst-hit, whilst substantial funding is still available for research in countries like Australia and the USA, who are at the forefront in this research area. In the USA, currently the research is focused on pest biology, ecology, monitoring and management in small-scale storages including the flour mills; whereas in Australia the focus is on applied research including pest management in bulk storages.

Among a strong contingent of scientists from Australia, Dr Manoj Nayak represented the CRCNPB and delivered an oral presentation titled ‘Developing strategies to manage highly phosphine resistant populations of flat grain beetles in large bulk storages’. The talk was well received by the international delegates and led to further discussions with scientists from Canada, China and the USA, where this pest has either been established as a major problem or emerging as a new problem.

Papers presented at the conference covered a range of topics including biology, ecology, chemical treatments, alternatives to conventional pesticides and fumigants, non-chemical control methods, pest detection methods, quarantine and regulations in relation to export of commodities.

Dr Nayak found the fumigation session the most relevant to the research he undertakes for the CRCNPB. This session had 20 oral presentations, which included a keynote by Dr Emecki regarding fumigants for commodity protection.

Dr Nayak attended only two of the seven workshops, as some ran concurrently while others were not relevant. Both workshops he did attend focused on analysis of stored-product insect monitoring data and ecological data (movement, distribution etc.). The workshops generated excellent interaction with leading researchers from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), CRCNPB and Canada, where different trapping methods and the critical analysis of the trapping data and decision-making processes were discussed.

Dr Nayak also joined an international research group involving researchers from USA, Czech Republic, Croatia and China aimed at developing molecular diagnostics for identification of stored product psocids around the world. The research will commence from October 2010.

International Working Conference on Stored Product Protection

CRICHTONA — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 03:07:11 +0000

The 10th International Working Conference on Stored Product Protection was held in Estoril, Portugal from 27 June to 2 July 2010, under the auspices of the Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical and the Instituto Superior de Agronomia in Lisbon, Portugal.

The aim of the conference was to exchange information on storage from a wide range of agricultural and economic settings, ranging from small farms to large commercial bulk storage and from tropical to temperate climates, and to present innovative solutions to storage problems that are effective, inexpensive, and environmental friendly. The organisers hoped that this conference would help to improve food availability and quality around the world.

Mr Robert Emery attended the working conference and presented on the development and use of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and how they were used to support, audit and validate the eradication of the 2007 khapra beetle (Trogoderma granarium) post-border detection in Western Australia. Robert’s paper was entitled The use of hand-held computers to audit and validate eradication of a post-border detection of khapra beetle in Western Australia.

Robert’s conference paper focused on the development of pest surveillance data collection software and hardware using PDAs to provide auditing, validation, chain of evidence and increase the volume of data collected as well as its integrity through relational databases and seamless data transfer to corporate systems. The system’s first deployment was during a Trogoderma granarium eradication.

The conference program covered the following topics:

around the world – an overview of different regions, reviews of past, present and future directions of research in different regions of the world
biology and monitoring – insects and mites biology, physiology, ecology, modeling and trapping
engineering – grain drying, handling, aeration and chilled air
fumigation – MA, SF, MB, PH3, other gases and resistance
microbiology and mycotoxins – moulds, control of moulds, mycotoxins, contamination and food safety
non- chemical control – biological control, extreme temperatures and organic pest control
residual insecticides – residual insecticides, DE, plant extracts and resistance
integrated pest management practices – methods to prevent, monitor and control pests in warehouses, processing facilities and museums, and
quarantine and regulatory – quarantine pests, control programs, MB alternatives in quarantine, wood packaging and registration of new pesticides.

As part of the conference Robert also attended a field trip visit to Companhia das Lezírias and the Orivárzea Rice Plant (Benavente), which was still partly under construction. Companhia das Lezírias is a state-run agriculture and forestry company located in the Lezíria do Tejo subregion. The company is an ecological sanctuary and peri urban farming area, near Grande Lisboa subregion - the most populated subregion of Portugal. The company produces rice, wine, cork, and livestock, as well as being a reputed horse breeder.

The International Working Conference on Stored Product Protection brought together close to 500 delegates from 27 countries, which provided an excellent opportunity to forge collaborative ties with a range of scientists, consultants, extension workers and industry, who are involved in the safe storage of the world's durable food commodities such as grains, legumes, spices, dried fruits, herbs and animal feed; and non food products such as museum artefacts and wood.

Surveillance systems you can count on

VANMEURSA — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 02:32:00 +0000

“You cannot prove an area is free of a particular pest”, says Queensland researcher Mark Stanaway, “you can only estimate the probability. The more information you bring into your surveillance systems, the more accurate your estimate.”

Mr Stanaway and Western Australian researcher Nichole Hammond are both working on CRC for National Plant Biosecurity PhD projects designed to analyse the effectiveness of current surveillance systems and identify areas for improvement.

Mr Stanaway’s project is based on surveillance data and modelling of the spread of spiralling whitefly, a sap-sucking bug from South America first identified in Cairns in 1998. Ms Hammond has focused on an assessment of surveillance systems in WA for the fungal disease Karnal bunt, which affects cereals.

Both are using hierarchical Bayesian models to estimate the uncertainty attached to each level of decision-making in the surveillance process and ranking the importance of each decision, to arrive at a ‘confidence rating’ for the effectiveness of their respective surveillance systems.

For his project, Mr Stanaway has collated more than 11 years of surveillance data to track the spread of the exotic spiralling whitefly (Aleurodicus dispersus) through northern Queensland. His central challenge is to calculate the likelihood that spiralling whitefly is in a particular area, based on the available surveillance strategies and current knowledge about the pest, by quantifying the uncertainty in the surveillance system.

Since arriving more than a decade ago, spiralling whitefly has established itself in Surveillance systems you can count on Statistical modelling provides greater confidence in pest surveillance systems tropical coastal Queensland, from Torres Strait to Gladstone, and has also been found in the Darwin region. Restrictions have been placed on the transport of nursery stock from Queensland because the insect attacks crops and ornamental plants.

Mr Stanaway’s modelling includes all known information about the insect, such as growth and reproductive rates and its spread to date. It also includes uncertainty calculations about the pest’s ecology and the sensitivity of monitoring techniques. It effectively provides a statistical fact check for predictive modelling about how the insect may spread, which can highlight problems in surveillance systems and in the modelling.

He uses a scoring system that identifies how good the ‘presence’ and ‘absence’ data collected by the surveillance program is – how likely a ‘false negative’ might be and whether the insect is actually present, despite the fact that it hasn’t been found.

His analysis has already identified the most effective host plants to monitor for the whitefly and a method of assessing how effective inspectors are. He says his analysis will be used to estimate whether spiralling whitefly has spread as far south as it is likely to, based on ‘absence’ data from southern-most monitoring points for several years, and the fact that once the pest spreads to a new location numbers build up to the point where it is easily identified in surveillance. This finding may allow restrictions on the movement of nursery plants to be reviewed.

He says the statistical surveillance information is being used in conjunction with a geographic information system (GIS) database and predictive modelling to develop a risk map for the spread of the insect. “The risk map is a much more powerful tool than the surveillance data because it provides a visual representation of changing insect or disease presence over time; it gives a sense of movement or change, which can be otherwise difficult to assess.”

In WA, Nichole Hammond has considered both active and passive surveillance systems for the exotic fungal pathogen Tilletia indica, which causes Karnal bunt of wheat, rated an ‘extreme’ threat to the grains industry if it ever gets through Australia’s quarantine defence.

The Department of Agriculture and Food, WA (DAFWA) has run an active surveillance for the past 10 years, collecting grain samples from the bulk grain handler the CBH Group. Each round of DAFWA surveillance tested approximately 200 grain samples and no Karnal bunt has been detected.

Passive surveillance systems involve the constant scanning of crops by farmers, farm workers and agronomists for anything ‘out of the ordinary’. Ms Hammond says passive surveillance has historically been used to support claims of freedom from plant pests, but its effectiveness has not previously been formally evaluated.

Her research analysed the community detection and reporting processes – the likelihood that growers would detect a possible infection and report it, based on existing surveillance practices for reporting pests and diseases.

She found that the active and passive surveillance systems provided greater than 90 per cent confidence that WA is free of Karnal bunt. This was based on 10 years’ worth of harvest data and the level of infection expected, if the disease was present in WA.

Ms Hammond’s analysis identified how sensitive each stage of the surveillance and identification process was. It highlighted where these could be improved, such as providing more information to growers and agronomists about signs and symptoms of exotic grains pests to improve confidence in on-farm detection.

Photo caption: Nichole Hammond recently submitted her thesis

Photo acknowledgement: GRDC Ground Cover

Article written by: Catherine Norwood

Myrtle rust surveillance

K.Scott — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 06:03:37 +0000

You could be forgiven for thinking it’s a military operation planning room. Topographical maps are spread across the table with bright coloured dots indicating where the threat was located and hopefully eliminated. Satellite imagery of the local terrain is projected on to a white screen at the front of the room showing lush agricultural areas and mountainous state forests. There are no military uniforms though. This meeting is a gathering of scientists from the Cooperative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity and Industry & Investment New South Wales staff who are planning surveillance strategies to monitor this exotic threat.

CRC chief executive officer, Dr Simon McKirdy said the CRC was approached by Australia’s Plant Health Committee (PHC) to deploy scientific resources and assist with surveillance of the rust.

“Given our plant biosecurity research activities, PHC approached us as part of their management strategy. We have flown in researchers from across the country to provide as much assistance as we can,” he said.

However not all researchers are able to participate in the face-to-face meeting. Based in Melbourne, CRC PhD candidate Mr John Weiss contributes to the discussion via a mobile phone strategically placed among the maps on the table. He reads out GPS coordinates; often repeating himself so he can be heard through the intermittent telephone reception. John is looking at regional satellite imagery of vegetation condition provided by NASA using dates specific to the incursion. He is checking for new spurts of growth among the surrounding foliage and comparing this with wind and weather patterns from the Bureau of Meteorology. Combining this information provides the team with the best options of where to place the surveillance devices. He also conducts a thorough analysis of future weather and wind patterns to see where sporulation and dispersal could occur if the rust is still in the area.

Also attending the meeting and to provide assistance with trapping potential spores is CRC PhD candidate Craig Feutrill. Craig made the long drive to the Central Coast from South Australia’s Barossa Valley and observers could mistake the trapping device being towed behind his car as a piece of military equipment, or perhaps even a rocket launcher. Instead it’s a nine-metre tall suction device which sucks in 45 cubic metres of air per minute. The air is funnelled into a cone and will drop any spores into one of eight jars filled with ethylene glycol (radiator fluid). These 70ml jars sit on an automated turntable to isolate the daily samples, which will then be collected and analysed by plant diagnosticians.

With Craig’s PhD research almost completed, he explains that this is the first time the suction trap has been used to collect spores. “My PhD was about trapping aphids, so it’s great to see the trap used for another purpose. Hopefully any data found, or not found, will be useful for NSW and their management of this incursion,” he said.

Rusts are highly transportable and while the spore traps will be monitoring for dispersal through wind movement, CRC researchers will also be deploying forensic type methods to check for contamination on clothing and other porous objects. Ms Dominie Wright from Western Australia’s Department of Agriculture and Food has a number of ‘forensic kits’ with her, which will be given to the I&I NSW staff monitoring the sites. The tape she uses is a special tape that the police use to collect forensic evidence at crime scenes which will be pressed over clothing to pick up any potential rust spores. The samples are sealed in a clear evidence bag, labelled with location and date before being sent for diagnosis.

After a full day of planning, over ten suitable sites were identified for surveillance activities. Craig’s trap will be used along with standard spore trapping devices leased from Queensland’s sugar industry’s research organisation BSES. The sites will be monitored weekly by I&I NSW staff and samples thoroughly sealed and carefully labelled and sent to the laboratory for diagnosis.

Director of Plant Biosecurity for Industry & Investment NSW, Dr Satendra Kumar says that while the conditions aren’t favourable for spore trapping, it is really important for NSW to have the CRC involved. “With the onset of winter weather conditions, it’s not an ideal time to be looking for spores. However, having the traps working now, and getting staff used to changing their tapes provides a good practice run before the warmer spring and summer weather sets in and spore activity is likely to be higher,” he said.

Dr Kumar says ongoing work by I&I NSW and now under the Interim Response Plan, work is directed towards possible eradication of Myrtle rust. “To demonstrate the success of eradication, various facets of surveillance including spore trapping will be necessary and I hope the CRC can continue to help with this,” he said.

Now the traps are deployed in strategic locations, I&I NSW staff will monitor them weekly. CRC researchers have returned to their respective states and wait anxiously to hear whether any spores are found during the surveillance activities. In all plant pest surveillance activities, receiving a ‘zero’ is the highest score possible, indicating that eradication strategies have been effective.

Information on Myrtle rust and what to look for can be found on the I&I NSW website www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/biosecurity/plant/myrtle-rust#What-can-I-do?

Photo caption: Suitable sites identified to deploy surveillance devices.
Image courtesy of Kate Scott

Written by Kate Scott (30 July 2010)

For the latest information on the Myrtle rust incursion, visit the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry website.

Biosecurity researchers aid the surveillance of exotic disease

K.Scott — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:18:14 +0000

Media Release: 30 July 2010

The threat is Uredo rangelli (Myrtle rust) which was recently detected at a NSW Central Coast cut flower growing facility. Very closely related to the rust fungus causing guava rust, it infects the Myrtaceae family of plants (which includes many Australian native species). This is the first detection of Myrtle rust in Australia and while it’s not been found on eucalypts, there is limited knowledge of its impact or behaviour under Australian conditions.

CRC chief executive officer, Dr Simon McKirdy said the CRC was approached by Australia’s Plant Health Committee (PHC) to deploy scientific resources and assist with surveillance of the rust.

Instructions for downloading images

To download and save images, right-click on the link and click ‘save target as’. If you experience any problems, please contact Communications Manager, Kate Scott on 0402 299 611 or k.scott@crcplantbiosecurity.com.au