Despite the chaos caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the team behind the Dung Beetle Ecosystem Engineers (DBEE) project has successfully completed the project's first objective, distributing over 24,000 introduced beetles to 50 farms across southern Australia and Western Australia for monitoring.
The project, which kicked off late 2018, aims to import and mass rear three new species of dung beetle to help plug Australia's deficit in spring active beetles. The beetles play a critical role on farm, transforming livestock dung into a multi-million-dollar benefit for producers. Now, thanks to this new spring active species, this benefit will be felt year-round with insects burying livestock dung which in turn boosts soil nutrition, improves water permeation and radically reduced fly and parasite numbers.
The DBEE project builds on previous research and will fill seasonal and geographic gaps in the distribution of beetles across southern Australia, by introducing new dung beetle species and expanding the distribution of existing species, the DBEE project aims to:
1. Improve soil in grazing systems
2. Reduce the spread of disease and insect pests, such as Bush Flies
3. Increase pasture health
4. Reduce nutrient run-off into waterways
Charles Sturt University Professor of plant biology and DBEE theme leader Leslie Weston said the multiple partners involved in the project were thrilled the campaign had hit such an important milestone in the face of global uncertainty.
Professor Weston said more than one-million dollars has been invested into the research campaign, including support from Meat & Livestock Australia and funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture's Rural Research and Development for Profit program.
"COVID-19 has clearly resulted in some challenges to the activities undertaken in the DBEE project," she said.
"But we're very excited that we've been able to complete the objective of the project and get the beetles out in the field.
"The fact that we've been able to do this in a year and a half is encouraging, as we have two more dung beetle species we're currently working on importing and rearing. Now that we're established, we're hopeful we'll be even more efficient the next round, even in the face of COVID."
Professor Weston said interest from schools keen to involve their students in mass rearing as part of the curriculum are continuing with orders for starter colonies already coming in ahead of the winter season.
The campaign hopes to successfully import, mass rear and release the next two species before the project wraps up in 2022.
- For more on the DBEE project visit https://www.dungbeetles.com.au/
