Saturday, 30 September 2023 12:48:19
PestNet
Grahame Jackson posted a new submission ‘News from IAPPS, The International Association for the Plant Protection Sciences’
Submission
News from IAPPS, The International Association for the Plant Protection Sciences
From Geoff Norton, President, IAPPS. (Also added as a PDF to preserve the photos)
New Language Options on the IAPPS Website
IAPPS members and other visitors to the IAPPS website will see that Google translate has recently been added, enabling non-English speaking visitors to read most of the material on the site in their local language. Whenever possible, our intention will be to post new material on the website as html, allowing for local language translation.
To access this translation facility, click on the “Translate” button and choose the relevant flag symbol associated with your local language. Note: a list of languages at the bottom of the screen provides an alternative means of selecting a language.
While making most of the current information on the website available to visitors with limited English, this translation facility offers a broader service to plant protection worldwide. Three examples, that can be accessed via www.plantprotection.org – Resources – Education and Training, illustrate this point:
1. “A Brief History of Plant Protection”, was initially posted on the “Education and Training/Plant Protection Stories” section of the IAPPS website, as two English language pdf documents.
Starting with the early beginnings in subsistence agriculture, we examine various case studies that illustrate the many economic, technical, social, and regulatory factors that have influenced the development, effectiveness and problems associated with modern plant protection strategies.
This plant protection story is now available as a website document, that allows users to take advantage of Google translate to view the tutorial in their own language.
2. “A Review of Digital Identification Tools for Plant Biosecurity”, a publication involving 11 experts from 6 countries, has recently been posted on the IAPPS site. It is freely available as an English pdf version as well as a website version, which can be translated into any of the Google languages and made available to a much wider audience. 3. A series of digital pathway keys for identifying insects and spiders found in rice in West Africa (see IAPPS Newsletter January 2023) has now been converted from English to French by Dr Souleymane Nacro (IAPPS West Africa Board member). Dr Nacro used Google translate to initially convert the keys to French, then checked and edited this initial translation, using appropriate French taxonomic terms. This French version of the digital keys will be made freely available on the same IAPPS site.
In this issue:
The NZPPS Executive are delighted to advise that theNZPPS 75th Anniversary Symposium and Conferenceare proceeding as in-person events at the
NZPPS 75th Anniversary
NZPPS Plant Protection MedalThis medal has been instituted by the New Zealand Plant Protection Society to honour those who have made exceptional contributions to plant protection in the widest sense. The medal will be awarded based on outstanding services to plant protection, whether through research, education, implementation or leadership.Details of the nomination process are available 
The hemibiotrophic fungus Dothistroma septosporum is a foliar pathogen of Pinus radiata that causes a disease known as Dothistroma needle blight (DNB). This forest tree disease is destructive to pines, resulting in dieback of needles, premature defoliation and in severe cases tree death. Necrotic lesions, which are seen on infected needles become a brick-red colour, characteristic of the fungus producing a toxic virulence factor called dothistromin. DNB is an economically important disease impacting upon New Zealand’s forest industries, costing the NZ economy ~$20 million per year. Current control measures include copper fungicide spraying, silvicultural methods such as pruning and thinning, and breeding pine trees for increased resistance to pathogen attack. A radical new approach, spray-induced gene silencing using RNA technology, has great potential to control DNB.
Non-native conifers have been well integrated throughout New Zealand’s landscape for amenity and shelter, erosion control, and commercial forestry purposes. Unwanted individuals that self-perpetuate from these cultivations are categorised as wildings. Wildings are the largest weeds in New Zealand and one of the biggest weed problems, posing a significant threat to the biodiversity and functioning of native ecosystems, particularly on the South Island. The conifer species most tightly interwoven throughout New Zealand’s landscape, industry, and culture is Pinus radiata. As a result, P. radiata propagules are genetically bred and widely distributed across both main islands with sufficient mutualists; all factors that can increase the risk of wilding. From a commercial forestry and afforestation perspective, previous research suggests P. radiata has a limit of establishment around 700 m due to cold-intolerance (i.e. reduced germination, growth, and cone production). As a result, a natural hybrid between P. radiata and P. attenuata is being assessed as commercial forestry and afforestation programmes shift to higher elevations. The aim of this research is to assess the potential threat of wilding establishment of both taxa in high country native grasslands and shrublands. This will be achieved through evaluating the potential biotic and abiotic barriers associated with these ecosystems on the fate of seeds and seedlings along an elevation gradient from the putative limit of establishment (< 700 m) to the high country (900 m and 1100 m). Across six sites and three microhabitats, this study is investigating: 1) seed viability, seed loss to predation and the potential for deposition into the soil seed bank; 2) emergence and seedling establishment; and 3) the response of 12-month-old seedlings to herbivory, and the interaction between herbivory and climate. This study isolates each seed and seedling stage with a different experiment to disentangle the influence of different barriers and how the magnitude of those barriers may fluctuate across multiple life stages to gain insight into the big picture of what may induce establishment failure of these two taxa. Lastly, this research will determine whether the information around the elevation limitation of P. radiata establishment from commercial plantations holds under natural conditions, and whether any of those barriers may be surpassed by the inclusion of the hybrid into high country ecosystems.Members in the News
2018 NZPPS Medal winner Barbara Barratt has been made a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi for pioneering internationally relevant research into the biosafety of introduced biocontrol agents for insect pests and for leading a major theme in a multi-agency research collaboration focused on border biosecurity risk assessment. Read more 
NZPPS editor Ruth Falshaw is the latest person to be profiled in the “Women in Horticulture” series published in the NZGrower magazine. The publisher Horticulture NZ and author Elaine Fisher have given permission for the article to be reproduced and it can be viewed 
Canterbury University is running a webinar entitled: Mahi Tahi: work together to build biosecurity capability on 13 April 2022. Find out more at: 
12th International Symposium on Adjuvants for Agrochemicals Bordeaux 24 – 29 April 2022. 
The Weed Management Society of South Australia (WMSSA), on behalf of The Council of Australasian Weed Societies (CAWS), will be hosting the 22nd Australasian Weeds Conference (22AWC) at Adelaide Oval from 25-29 September 2022. 
The 8th International Weed Science Congress: “Weed Science in a Climate of Change” will be held in Bangkok from 4 – 9 December 2022.
Books
Global Plant Protection News 