Science Protecting Plant Health
Science Protecting Plant Health (SciPlant) 2017, held in Brisbane from 26–28 September, was a joint conference of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society and the Plant Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre. More than 500 delegates from 30 countries attended the multi-sector agriculture conference this year including 90 students, which is great news for maintaining expertise into the future.
There were presentations on a wide variety of topics concerning plant pests and diseases, both exotic and endemic, with session titles including diagnostics, resistance breeding, surveillance, modelling and pest risk analysis, pest ecology, biosecurity policy, molecular plant-pathogen interactions and on-farm biosecurity. Workshops held either side of the conference and more than 200 posters on display provided further opportunities for discussion.
Representing the wine sector at SciPlant 2017 was Sharon Harvey (Wine Australia) and Suzanne McLoughlin (Vinehealth Australia), who found many highlights and learnings from the conference that can be applied to viticulture.
Mark Hoddle (University of California) described how classical biocontrol has been used to stop the spread of glassy-winged sharpshooter, the main vector of Pierce’s disease, through the South Pacific. He discussed the role for biocontrol in integrated pest management and the idea of Australia and New Zealand having biocontrol agents ‘locked and loaded’ and ready to use.
Barb Howlett (University of Melbourne) presented a case study on a ‘genome to paddock’ approach to plant pathology and Kim Plummer (AgroBio) detailed the features of a ‘next gen’ plant pathologist and how to build capability in the future by engaging students.
Gerhard Pieterson (University of Pretoria) outlined methods that are being refined in South Africa for management of grapevine leafroll disease. This disease is particularly difficult to control in white winegrape varieties, as there are no visible leaf symptoms.
Other presentation and poster topics specifically relating to viticulture included modelling and use of drones in phylloxera surveillance, objective measures for powdery mildew, trunk disease pathogens and Queensland fruit fly.