Authorities have moved to limit the risk of fire ants entering New South Wales (NSW) after the invasive super pests were detected on the Gold Coast, just 5.5 kilometres (3.4 miles) from the state border. The nest, which has since been destroyed, was found last week on private land believed to have been used as…

Australian farmers are concerned the federal government is about to hit them with extra biosecurity fees and have called for importers to pick up the bill instead. Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has previously flagged a change to how biosecurity is funded, with a commitment to a sustainable funding source. Ahead of Tuesday night’s budget, Tony…

Over three years after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, biosafety experts told the House what steps might reduce the likelihood of a similar disaster. “We still do not know how the COVID-19 pandemic started. However, more information has heightened our suspicions that the origin of the pandemic was linked to a lab incident,” said…

Commentary When it comes to the business of vaccines and biosecurity, the land of free enterprise is all up for large-scale state intervention to create and prop up markets. Some of the generals behind the biosecurity “Manhattan Project” believe the War on Microbes is too important to leave to politicians or Adam Smith’s invisible hand. In…

Commentary The name Robert Kadlec may mean nothing to you, but anyone who has watched Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War era satirical masterpiece “Dr. Strangelove” will quickly get the idea of who this man is. Colonel Kadlec is the General Ripper of the War on Microbes. It is no small irony that the Biodefense Commission that Kadlec set up in 2014 is funded by the Hudson…

After over 20 years of lobbying, the United States has been granted permission to export apples to Australia, but local farmers have raised concerns over the biosecurity risks. The decision was made after the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry published its final report for the risk analysis of commercially importing apples from Washington, Oregon,…

Commentary A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of speaking at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles alongside my friend and colleague, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. A month prior, we had also lectured together also at a conference in Rome (which, alas, was not recorded). Fortunately, the LA talks were—link below. When the COVID-19 pandemic…

With foot and mouth disease now present across 22 provinces in Indonesia and fragments of the virus found in Australia, Australian opposition leader Peter Dutton has joined fellow opposition members of parliament David Littleproud, Karen Andrews, and Barnaby Joyce in calling for Australia to close its border to the southeast Asian nation. However, Prime Minister…

A portable molecular lab that will be used to detect exotic animal diseases and biosecurity threats has opened in Timor-Leste following a seven-year joint project between Australia and the Timorese government. Created in partnership between Agriculture Victoria and Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, the purpose-built lab aims to equip Timorese vets with resources to…

The New South Wales government has announced that Lord Howe Island (LHI), home to over 33 threatened species and many critically endangered species have made a great recovery in biodiversity since the eradication of rodents in 2019. James Griffin, New South Wales Minister for the Environment said the population of the endangered LHI woodhens has…