Staff of Plant Health Australia (PHA) attended the 3rd Australian Bee Congress. The congress program was filled with world-class speakers who presented on a wide range of topics. It was also a fabulous opportunity to meet beekeepers and discuss biosecurity issues affecting the Australian honey bee industry. More

The business of sorting and identifying the thousands of tephritid ‘true’ fruit flies affecting a wide variety of crops grown in Australia has just been made a lot easier.

The Australian Handbook for the Identification of Fruit Flies has always been popular with fruit fly diagnosticians, biosecurity workers, and the general fruit fly community. More

Over the last year, PHA has been helping to plan a large simulation exercise to be run by NSW Department of Primary Industries, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, and the National Biosecurity Response Team Advisory Group.

Exercise Border Bridge is an exercise program that will look at how NSW and Queensland respond to a biosecurity incident occurring across both jurisdictions. More

Plant Health Australia (PHA), the not-for-profit coordinator of the plant biosecurity industry and government partnership in Australia, has three new non-executive Directors on its Board, plus a new Chair and Deputy Chair.

The new PHA non-executive Directors appointed at the PHA Annual General Meeting in Canberra are Dr Prue McMichael, Mr Kim Halbert and Mr Doug Phillips. More

The report and speaker presentations from the International Symposium on Xylella fastidiosa, held in Brisbane on 17-18 May 2017, are now available on the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources website. Xylella is the number 1 pest of the National Plant Pest Priorities that are exotic to Australia, under eradication or have limited distribution due to wide host range and impact. More

The National Bee Pest Surveillance Program is administered by Plant Health Australia and uses sentinel hives, swarm and nest capture, catchboxes, and floral sweep netting in and around ports along Australia’s coast as early warning systems for incursions of exotic bees and pests of bees. More

PHA was a platinum sponsor of the recent Science Protecting Plant Health Conference in Brisbane and had a good presence at the event. Over 500 delegates gathered to hear about the latest plant biosecurity research and to learn about Australia’s plant biosecurity system. More

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Western Australia (DPIRD) is continuing efforts to manage and contain tomato potato psyllid following the decision made by the National Management Group (NMG) earlier this year that it cannot be eradicated. More

Vegetable leafminer (Liriomyza sativae) is a new arrival to Australia.

Since 2008, it has been island hopping in a southerly direction down the Torres Strait Island group. The Northern Australian Quarantine Strategy (NAQS) and Biosecurity Queensland has been tracking the movement of this pest since its detection in the Strait. More

Rapid reporting of exotic plant pests is critical: early detection gives us the best chance to effectively control and eradicate pests. If you find something you believe could be an exotic plant pest, call the Exotic Plant Pest Hotline immediately to report it to your local state or territory government. More