CRC for Plant Biosecurity - invasive

Predicting Invasive Fungal Pathogens Using Invasive Pest Assemblages: Testing Model Predictions in a Virtual World

CRICHTONA — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 05:21:14 +0000

Predicting Invasive Fungal Pathogens Using Invasive Pest Assemblages: Testing Model Predictions in a Virtual World

The fight against feral disease

VANMEURSA — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:26:29 +0000

Global Biosecurity Media Relese: 21 December 2009

In a world where people, trade and goods are in constant transit – protecting Australia’s borders is vital to safeguarding the nation’s biosecurity.

But what about the potential threats that already exist within our borders? Australia is host to more than 50 invasive animal species, resulting in millions of feral animals roaming the country, providing a free ride for infectious diseases to spread and pose a threat to wildlife, livestock and humans.

Invasive Animals CRC Detection & Prevention coordinator and project leader, Dr Wendy Henderson, is helping to understand these potential risks and develop strategies to reduce the impact of invasive animals. She has just authored a review of disease agents found in feral animals in Australia, a hot topic which will be explored at the first international Global Biosecurity 2010 Conference in Brisbane. READ MORE

Registrations for the conference are now open. Visit www.globalbiosecurity2010.com

Media contact l Laureta Wallace

Phone: (08) 6250 4561

Search and Detection: Theory and application in disease and wildlife management’

K.Scott — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 04:25:52 +0000

We participated in the ‘Search and Detection: Theory and application in disease and wildlife management' conference, hosted by Landcare Research at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, from Nov 10 - 11, 2008. Other conference collaborators included the Australian Biosecurity CRC for Emerging Infectious Disease, Australian Wildlife Management Society, Invasive Animals CRC, and the New Zealand Ecological Society. The conference consisted of 2 days of presentations on relevant study areas (26 individual papers), including various papers on the topics of ‘Designing optimal surveillance for national or internal border biosecurity' and ‘Matching monitoring effort of rare events with the costs and risks of being wrong'. The proceedings of the conference are proposed to be published in a special issue of a journal.

We presented our paper entitled ‘Biosecurity surveillance design: detecting non-indigenous vertebrate introductions using risk and power', based on our work in CRC30084 ‘Biosecurity Quarantine Model System' and its supplementary project on vertebrates. The paper led to very positive comments and useful feedback from invasive species experts from several agencies in New Zealand and Australia. Our methodology is advanced in development and our first article has been submitted for publication, so this was timely peer review that will assist in delivery of project milestones. No other comparable methodologies for designing complex surveillance programs were presented and there are clearly many applications for our work. We discussed at least two possible collaborative projects applying our methodology in different contexts. This is also timely, given the stage of the project. Lastly, the conference was very valuable in enabling us to form general links with invasive species specialists in Australia, New Zealand and Mexico, particularly in island ecology and in veterinary fields.

We thank the CRC NPB and Landcare Research, New Zealand for supporting our attendance at this extremely worthwhile conference.

Australasian Wildlife Management Society

K.Scott — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 04:16:23 +0000

We participated in the Australasian Wildlife Management Society 21^st Annual Conference: Human Impacts on Wildlife in Fremantle, WA, from November 24 to 27, 2008. Conference collaborators included the Invasive Animals CRC, Department of Agriculture and Food, Eco Gene, Department of Conservation and Environment, Alcoa, and Landcare Research. The conference consisted of 4 days of presentations on relevant study areas, including multiple symposiums on ‘Invasive species' and keynote speeches in the areas of ‘management of invasive species' and ‘invasive animals'. The proceedings of the conference are available as a book of abstracts.

We presented our paper entitled ‘Biosecurity surveillance design using risk and power: A case study of the Black rat (Rattus rattus)', and our poster entitled ‘Targeting rats in a trap: Detection of invasive species using a biosecurity surveillance system' based on our work in CRC30084 ‘Biosecurity Quarantine Model System' and its supplementary project on vertebrates. The paper and poster led to very positive comments and useful feedback from invasive species experts from several agencies in Australia. This was a timely peer review that will assist in delivery of project milestones. No other comparable methodologies for designing complex surveillance programs were presented and there are many applications for our work. Conference attendees were especially interested in the ability to vary statistical power according to the specific project goals. The conference was very valuable in enabling us to form general links with invasive species specialists in Australia, particularly in island and arid zone ecology.

We thank the CRC NPB for supporting our attendance at this very worthwhile conference.