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The National Forest Biosecurity Surveillance Group (NFBSG) met for the first time in Sydney on 1 August. The group is made up key stakeholders in Australia’s forests including representatives from federal and state government agencies, Plant Health Australia and the environment and community sectors. More

Giant pine scale was first confirmed in Victoria in 2014 and poses a significant risk to Australia’s softwood plantation industry, parks, forests, and residential properties if not properly managed.

This small scale insect sucks the sap of pine, fir and spruce trees, sometimes killing the tree. More

The quest to better manage fruit flies in Australia was the focus of a National Fruit Fly Symposium in Melbourne on 14-15 August 2018.

Around 90 people attended the symposium representing Australia’s horticultural industries, researchers, pest control advisers and government agencies. More

Australian governments and the beekeeping industry are improving their readiness to respond to a detection of varroa mite (Varroa destructor) by taking part in Exercise Bee Prepared.

In this exercise program, PHA facilitates the delivery of workshops across the country, testing how to rapidly respond to a detection of this serious pest of honey bees. More

Beekeepers nationally, commercial and hobby, are being urged to adopt the Australian Honey Bee Industry Biosecurity Code of Practice to keep their bees healthy and to safeguard honey bee and pollination dependent industries.

Honey production is worth more than $100 million annually, along with sales of beeswax, queen and packaged bees. More

The latest go-to guide to how Australia protects itself against exotic plant pests and diseases reveals the tremendous effort being made across the country to sustain our plant industries, unique ecosystems and standards of living.

The tenth edition of the National Plant Biosecurity Status Report was released this week by Plant Health Australia (PHA), the national coordinator of the government-industry partnership for plant biosecurity. More

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