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The National Fruit Fly Council (NFFC) is excited to announce the National Fruit Fly Symposium from 20 – 21 July 2023 at the National Wine Centre in Adelaide, South Australia.

This is the first face-to-face symposium since the fruit fly system community last gathered in 2018. More

Welcome to the March issue of Tendrils! The third month of 2023 has brought with it numerous industry events and the PHA team has had another extremely productive month representing our organisation at biosecurity events, showcasing careers in agriculture and biosecurity at career shows, participating in national committees and developing the draft Annual Operational Plan – to name a few. More

The Mid-Year Performance Report marks the halfway point in our financial year and reflects our progress against the strategic and operational priorities outlined in Plant Health Australia’s (PHA) Strategic Plan 2022–27, as well as the anticipated activities captured in the Annual Operational Plan 2022–23. More

Government Apiary Officers are better equipped to deliver surveillance activities under the National Bee Pest Surveillance Program (NBPSP), as a result of newly developed resources from Plant Health Australia (PHA).

The ‘how to’ videos based on NBPSP Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), are designed to improve consistency in bee surveillance activities, including the collection of pest presence and absence data to support international reporting and proof of freedom claims. More

A joint Plant Industries Biosecurity Committee and Plant Health Committee (PHC) workshop held in February was attended by state and commonwealth government and PIBC Members, including Plant Health Australia (PHA), Greenlife Industry Australia (GIA), Australian Grape and Wine Inc, AUSVEG, Apple and Pears Australia and Citrus Australia. More

With over 47,937 registered beekeepers who own approximately 855,330 hives, keeping Australia’s honey bee population healthy is no mean feat.

‘Bee Pest Blitz’ is a new annual month-long national campaign to increase awareness of the importance of bee biosecurity and encourage beekeepers to inspect their hives for high priority exotic pests. More

Plant Health Australia (PHA) will be hosting its third stakeholder workshop on the proposed national High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) database at Agribio, LaTrobe University in Melbourne from 8.30am – 4.30pm on 18 April.

The aim of the workshop is to seek final feedback on the scope of the proposed nationally coordinated HTS database, funded under the Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s (DAFF) Biosecurity Innovation Program. More

As an initiative under Plant Health Australia’s (PHA) National Plant Biosecurity Diagnostics and Surveillance Professional Development Activities, PHA is working with Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD WA) to deliver a PSHB workshop for network members. More

In late December 2022, Karla Williams moved on from her role as Senior Biosecurity Officer (Apiary Biosecurity) with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania (NRE Tas). As the only apiary biosecurity officer in Tasmania, Karla was the Bee Biosecurity Officer under the National Bee Biosecurity Program, she co-ordinated the Tasmanian component of the National Bee Pest Surveillance Program and also undertook a majority of the field and office-based work in the state apiary biosecurity program. More

The Annual Surveillance Workshop (ASW) and the Annual Diagnostics Workshop (ADW) are networking events for plant biosecurity diagnosticians and surveillance practitioners to come together to share knowledge and learnings.

This year the joint Annual Diagnostics and Surveillance Workshop (ADSW) will be held in Canberra at the QT Hotel 9 –11 May 2023. More