Closer links between Western Australian and American scientists are set to deliver major assistance to Western Australian growers.

Department of Agriculture Plant Health Manager, Dr Shashi Sharma said a recent visit to Perth had seen a range of initiatives discussed, which offer real benefits for the State.

·     Imagine being able to open a file on your computer to help you identify what new insect you found on your garden plants or crops, without waiting for a specialist to give a diagnosis.

·     Would you like to look through your computer to see how that distant paddock is growing and what, if anything, is eating your crops?

·     Or perhaps check your email to find-out about a new insect pest in Victoria and Tasmania that has not yet reached the borders of Western Australia.

·     Or turn on a black-light inside the automated insect trap and see how many genetically modified flies are present to keep a record of your citrus crop exposure to the sterile insect treatment program.

These four initiatives were some of the programs discussed at the recent seminar between researchers from the Center for Plant Health Science and Technology (CPHST) and the Department of Agriculture WA. 

American research scientists, Mr Daniel Fieselmann and Dr Woody Bailey, from the United States Department of Agriculture, introduced their CPHST programs to Departmental scientists and invited Universities and bio-security Industry officials.

Dr Sharma said that new collaborative projects were in the establishment phase.  "Some of these technologies are not that far away from becoming a reality in Western Australia."

Future collaborative projects with the USDA could see more of these types of programs being developed and available to primary producers here in Western Australia.  The potential benefit to the cereal, vegetable and fruit production industries could be in the millions of dollars.

Dr  Sharma identified some areas for possible collaboration:

LucID Keys for Pest Identification:
Electronic image banks for people with little experience.  These are already available to researchers in Australia and with some training or on-line help programs, could be used by the general public as a pest reference source

Automated Insect Surveillance:
This initiative potentially provides significant economic & environmental benefits as growers can reduce their costs through reduced insecticide application & biological control practices.   Robotics technology, integrated with the identification system, simplifies data collection processes and saves fuel and hours of travel for people in the field.

Emerging Pest Threats & Offshore Initiative:
Keeping insect populations below economic injury levels. This bio-control technology may now be transferred to any new State that becomes infested or new regions within States already infested.

Gene Manipulation for:
Plant biosecurity management

Remote sensing technology
HyperSpectral Imaging (HSI) – can be used to distinguish individual tree species & trees exhibiting stress symptoms resulting from insect damage. This technology has greatly assisted the survey effort for an important pest in the USA.