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27 August 2020
Dear Stakeholders,

Welcome to our August newsletter.

This week, Chair of the National Feral Pig Action Plan Steering Group, John Maher, spoke on ABC Landline about the importance of the Plan in guiding a strategic, co-ordinated and national approach to feral pig management –supported by consistent adoption of best practice management methodologies, by landholders and filling of knowledge gaps to make a real difference over the long term.


In exciting news, the Writing Group - a subset of our Steering Group - met on 11 August 2020 to officially start drafting the plan. I extend my sincere thanks to the Group for their contributions and input to date.

The group is working under a clear directive; that the Plan be ambitious, bold and long-lasting, delivering significant reductions in Australia’s feral pig population and protecting our environmental, cultural, agricultural and social assets.

We have also had a successful fortnight of stakeholder engagement – with a significant number of consultations taking place. I thank all partners who took the time with speak directly with us. This is a valuable step to ensure the Plan represents a wide range of concerns and opportunities.

Kind regards, 


Dr Heather Channon
National Feral Pig Management Coordinator

0423 056 045

heather.channon@feralpigs.com.au
https://twitter.com/DrChannon
A survey has been distributed to all interested stakeholders. This voluntary survey is an opportunity to provide direct feedback to the Writing Group – an essential element of the drafting process. So far, we’ve had 496 respondents. This is a solid number, but we’re seeking as many responses as possible. 

The survey can be accessed here, should take no more than 15 minutes to complete, and will be open until 11:59pm AEST, Friday 4th September 2020. A big thank you for all those who have completed the survey and to those who have assisted with sharing through their networks. 
Survey here
The second stakeholder forum for the National Feral Pig Action Plan is being held on Wednesday, 2 September 2020 from 2:00-3:30 pm via Zoom. 

The program for the Stakeholder Forum will include: 
  • An update of progress with drafting the National Feral Pig Action Plan
  • Key insights from the stakeholder survey, and how these findings will be used
  • Key recommendations from the Animal Health Committee’s ASF feral pig task group
  • New funding opportunities
If you are interested in attending, please register below. The cut-off for registrations is 5:00pm AEST, Monday 30 August. Details for this meeting will be provided via return email. 
Register here
Using automated thermal imagery to detect and identify for multiple pest species
Thermal sensors have become an important resource in the ecological monitoring of feral animals, but the extensive data sets they produce are often laborious to analyse. 

In a bid to reduce the time and cost associated with this type of information processing, Dr Peter Adams from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, WA, is leading a multi-state research team to develop automated thermal imagery analysis models, incorporating artificial intelligence and deep machine learning. 

Funded by the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions, this project aims to create a central analysis platform that is compatible with low, medium and high-resolution thermal imagery that is equally accessible to all stakeholders and end-users. Further information about this project can be found here.
New suspect case of Panama TR4 in Tully Valley

A banana farm in Far North Queensland’s Tully Valley is the most recent in the area to detect a case of Panama Disease tropical race 4 (Panama TR4). A plant exhibiting the symptoms typically associated with the disease was identified during a routine property inspection, with subsequent tests returning positive for Panama TR4 – marking the fifth infested commercial banana farm in the region since 2015.

Strict biosecurity processes in place at the farm appear to have prevented any further spread of the disease, and early detection by the Biosecurity Queensland’s Panama TR4 Management team meant the plant could be quickly destroyed to minimise fungal spore build-up in the soil.

For more information on the case, you can read the Australian Banana Grower’s Council’s official release here.

Request for blood swab samples

Charles Darwin University is undertaking a project, with support from DAWE, to map the metapopulation structure of feral pigs across Australia that will identify the connectivity between populations to improve the efficiency of culling programs. Assistance through the collection of blood swabs of pigs from different parts of Australia dispatched under routine management is being sought. If you are able to assist, please contact A/Prof Hamish Campbell on hamish.campbell@cdu.edu.au.

For further information or to get in touch, please use the contact details below:

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