A new initiative to provide better coordination of biosecurity research development has received a large boost with $55 million committed over six years.
Catalysing Australia's Biosecurity (CAB), a CSIRO initiative co-led with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) has co-investment from Australia's national science agency, government, industry and a range of partners in the hopes of strengthening biosecurity defences.
This investment is outside the Biosecurity Sustainable Funding Package, with $1 billion committed over four years in the Federal Budget 2023-24.
The initiative aims to approach the biosecurity challenge by focusing on new technologies and digital systems to keep out alien species.
CSIRO believe a large scale outbreak of foot and mouth disease could have an economic impact of $80 billion over 10 years, while an established khapra beetle incursion could cost $15.5 billion over 20 years.
Initially, CAB projects include investing to prepare for emergency animal diseases such as the Japanese encephalitis virus and lumpy skin disease, trialling the BeeRight and eDNA technology to detect Varroa mite in hives, and delivering a real-time biosecurity alerts service in partnership with Atlas of Living Australia.
The initiative is also working on deploying advanced pest management systems at the crop and landscape scale in collaboration with Hort Innovation and developing an Australian Biosecurity Research Database to help guide strategic investments and decision-making.
Believing the initiative is crucial to Australia's biosecurity defence, CSIRO's chief executive Dr Doug Hilton said biosecurity is on the frontline of protecting the nation's biodiversity, ensuring food security and minimising the risk of the transmission of infectious diseases.
"Our biosecurity defences, processes and protections have to be robust, they have to be world class and they must be science-based, which is why CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, is part of this initiative," Dr Hilton said.
The Invasive Alien Species Assessment, released last year, put the cost of invasive alien species to Australia at $25 billion a year.
CSIRO chief research scientist for biosecurity Dr Andy Sheppard Australia has close to 3000 invasive alien species which result in significant losses to agriculture and management costs.
"Invasive alien species are a growing and significant problem around the world," Dr Sheppard said.
"Globally, they are in the top five drivers of biodiversity loss alongside land and sea-use change, direct exploitation of organisms, climate change, and pollution.
"However, in Australia, they are number one."
