Title: Australian biosecurity researchers aid in the surveillance of myrtle rust
[CRC for National Plant Biosecurity - 30 July 2010] -- You could be forgiven for thinking it’s a military operation planning room. Topographical maps are spread across the table with bright coloured dots indicating where the threat was located and hopefully eliminated. Satellite imagery of the local terrain is projected on to a white screen at the front of the room showing lush agricultural areas and mountainous state forests. There are no military uniforms though. This meeting is a gathering of scientists from the Cooperative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity and Industry & Investment New South Wales staff who are planning surveillance strategies to monitor this exotic threat.
The threat is Uredo rangelli (Myrtle rust) which was recently detected at a NSW Central Coast cut flower growing facility. Very closely related to the rust fungus causing guava rust, it infects the Myrtaceae family of plants (which includes many Australian native species). This is the first detection of Myrtle rust in Australia and while it’s not been found on eucalypts, there is limited knowledge of its impact or behaviour under Australian conditions. CRC chief executive officer, Dr Simon McKirdy said the CRC was approached by Australia’s Plant Health Committee (PHC) to deploy scientific resources and assist with surveillance of the rust.
“Given our plant biosecurity research activities, PHC approached us as part of their management strategy. We have flown in researchers from across the country to provide as much assistance as we can,” he said. However not all researchers are able to participate in the face-to-face meeting. Based in Melbourne, CRC PhD candidate Mr John Weiss contributes to the discussion via a mobile phone strategically placed among the maps on the table. He reads out GPS coordinates; often repeating himself so he can be heard through the intermittent telephone reception. John is looking at regional satellite imagery of vegetation condition provided by NASA using dates specific to the incursion. He is checking for new spurts of growth among the surrounding foliage and comparing this with wind and weather patterns from the Bureau of Meteorology. Combining this information provides the team with the best options of where to place the surveillance devices. He also conducts a thorough analysis of future weather and wind patterns to see where sporulation and dispersal could occur if the rust is still in the area.
Also attending the meeting and to provide assistance with trapping potential spores is CRC PhD candidate Craig Feutrill. Craig made the long drive to the Central Coast from South Australia’s Barossa Valley and observers could mistake the trapping device being towed behind his car as a piece of military equipment, or perhaps even a rocket launcher. Instead it’s a nine-metre tall suction device which sucks in 45 cubic metres of air per minute. The air is funnelled into a cone and will drop any spores into one of eight jars filled with ethylene glycol (radiator fluid). These 70ml jars sit on an automated turntable to isolate the daily samples, which will then be collected and analysed by plant diagnosticians.