RSWA July talk: Polyphagous shot-hole borer in Western Australia
About this event
Abstract
Polyphagous shot-hole borer (PSHB; Euwallacea fornicatus) was detected in Australia in August 2021. It was detected by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) in the Perth metropolitan area of Western Australia (WA) via a public report made using the MyPestGuide Reporter App. PSHB is an agricultural and environmental pest, with a wide host range (>400 amenity, fruit and nut tree species). The beetle bores into living mature trees and can cause limb dieback and tree death. PSHB lives in close association with a symbiotic fungus, an ambrosia clade Fusarium species (Fusarium [AF-18] in WA), that it farms as a food source. Diagnostically, both the beetle and its symbiont have complex taxonomic histories and require molecular diagnostics to confirm identity. In response to the detection, a Quarantine Area has been established to prevent spread of the pest. The response has impacted residents, local governments, green-waste operators and numerous plant and wood-based industries. This presentation will summarise response activities, explore some of the challenges and opportunities present at the urban forest-residential interface, how these are being navigated and how we can maximise these learnings to enact transformational change across environmental, social and jurisdictional boundaries of national responses to plant pest incursions.
Presenter Biography
Dr Darryl Hardie
Entomologist and Technical Area Manager – Surveillance, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development
I am the Technical Area Manager for Surveillance at DPIRD. I provide strategic and day to day direction to Plant Biosecurity officers and provide oversight on plant related incursions to Incident Management Teams involved in DPIRD responses. I am responsible for all issues encompassing plant pest surveillance within DPIRD. I previously chaired the Sub-committee for National Plant Health Surveillance (SNPHS) of Australia for a six years period. I am the WA government invertebrate and biosecurity specialist on the Quarantine Expert Panel for Chevron Australia’s Gorgon Gas development on Barrow Island (2009 – present). From 2010 to 2015 I coordinated the DAFWA response and represented the Department on the national Dimethoate and Fenthion Response Coordination Committee (DFRCC). This included representing DPIRD at the Australian Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Reference Committee, on the “Implications of the restriction on the use of fenthion on Australia’s horticultural industry (February 2014)”. I completed a five-year involvement with the CRC for National Plant Biosecurity in 2010 where I was part of the initial setup and bidding team, then spent four years as the Program Leader for Surveillance. During this period, I developed the program and helped facilitate or directly negotiated more than 18 projects with over 20 organisations. In 2009 I was appointed as National Leader of the GRDC funded project “Developing and promoting Integrated Pest Management in Australian Grains” (UWA00134) and was a member of NIPI (National Invertebrate Pest Initiative) executive (2009 – 2012).
Dr Kylie Ireland
Plant Pathologist, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development
Dr Kylie Ireland is plant pathologist in the DPIRD Plant Biosecurity Pest Risk and Analytics Team, subject matter expert on the PSHB response, and an adjunct research fellow at Curtin University. She loves plant biosecurity, the science-management/policy nexus and agricultural extension. With a PhD in plant biosecurity from Murdoch University, Kylie has worked on a diverse range of projects, including pest risk modelling, Myrtle rust ecology, plant pathology capacity building in Laos, plant pest impacts, weed biocontrol and fungicide resistance extension. Kylie is a director of the Australian Plant Biosecurity Science Foundation and leads the editorial team of the APPS Newsletter.