“This is an opportunity to showcase the work being undertaken by our Panama TR4 Program and to help build the capacity of professionals working in African plant biosecurity agencies,” Panama TR4 Program leader Rebecca Sapuppo said.
Ms Sapuppo will be discussing farm biosecurity protocols, community engagement and awareness campaigns, operating procedures for farm workers and farm managers, and laboratory diagnostics in the identification of Panama disease tropical race 4.
Panama TR4 Program senior plant pathologist Wayne O’Neill will be attending a Fusarium laboratory workshop being held at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Mr O’Neill is a member of the program’s diagnostics team, a small multidisciplinary group dedicated to the identification of Panama disease in banana plants.
The workshop is being presented by internationally recognised Fusarium and Panama disease researchers. It is considered the pre-eminent Fusarium identification workshop in the world. Following the Fusarium workshop, Mr O’Neill will visit the laboratory of Dr Altus Viljoen at Stellenbosch University. Dr Viljoen is a world leader in Panama disease research who visited Queensland last year to provide advice on our disease incursion.
On his return to Australia, Mr O’Neill will be conducting Fusarium identification training with the diagnostic team to further strengthen the skills of the Panama TR4 Program.
