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Speaker 1: Researchers at charles Dale and University are looking into biting

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Speaker 1: midgi's and their potential to carry diseases that could damage

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Speaker 1: Australia's livestock industry. So there are fears that exotic diseases

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Speaker 1: transmitted to animals from midge's and mozzies are on the

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Speaker 1: rise in Australia's northern neighboring countries, increasing those biosecurity risks.

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Speaker 1: Now joining us on the line to explain the situation

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Speaker 1: further is Charlesdale and University's Professor of Tropical Biosecurity, Maxine Pigot.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to your magazine.

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Speaker 2: Hello, how are you?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, really good, Thanks so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Now talk us through this study and what exactly it involves.

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Speaker 2: Okay, So I got some funding through the federal government

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Speaker 2: for a National Industry PhD and the project is in

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Speaker 2: collaboration of the Northern Territory government. We're really interested in

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Speaker 2: looking at this group of midgis called killer coids. They're

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Speaker 2: biting midgis and they're very interesting because they are important

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Speaker 2: disease vectors for a range of viruses and bacteria, particularly

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Speaker 2: for livestock. So there are a couple of exotic diseases

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Speaker 2: that they carry, blue toung virus and African horse sickness.

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Speaker 2: They're not currently in Australia, but one of the things

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Speaker 2: we just wanted to really get some more information on

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Speaker 2: qula coiity species across Northern Australia, how they move, what's

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Speaker 2: the gene flow between population So that really means sorry,

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Speaker 2: just that if their populations are closely related, there's lots

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Speaker 2: of movement, but if they're not closely related, then they're

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Speaker 2: you know, probably not as there's not as much gene

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Speaker 2: flow going between populations.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, Like it sounds like very common sense kind

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Speaker 1: of research to do here as well, because it does

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Speaker 1: sound as though it could have an impact on our

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Speaker 1: livestock and on industry.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I think one of the problems is it's always

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Speaker 2: been in funding for these sort of projects. But there's

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Speaker 2: also a lot of species, so there are hundreds of

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Speaker 2: hundreds of species, probably underescribed species as well, so there's

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Speaker 2: a lot of basic research that needs to be done.

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Speaker 2: So it's often the funding and also Northern Australia's huge

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Speaker 2: as we all know, it's a lot of work.

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Speaker 1: How concerning is the rise of those exotic diseases in

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Speaker 1: neighboring countries as well, and I guess this is something

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Speaker 1: that you're sort of looking into.

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Speaker 2: I think that the closer they get to Australia, then

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Speaker 2: of course you know there is concern and it was

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Speaker 2: always going to be concerned that potentially they're going to

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Speaker 2: jump over and that we're going to start seeing some

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Speaker 2: of these diseases. So I guess this project is really

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Speaker 2: looking at preparedness. You know, if we understand movement of

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Speaker 2: these insect vectors, then we can start sort of like

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Speaker 2: making sure our surveillance is accurate and we're in the

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Speaker 2: right spots and that we sort of had some idea

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Speaker 2: of what might happen if one of these exotic diseases

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Speaker 2: came into Australia.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and what will the study mean then when you

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Speaker 1: look at that biosecurity and what you know, what the

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Speaker 1: impact could be if that were to happen.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think part of the study as well will

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Speaker 2: also be trying to, I guess, simulate what could happen

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Speaker 2: if a disease came in based on what we know

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Speaker 2: about the movement of the mid species. And then if

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Speaker 2: we do know that could just give you an indication

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Speaker 2: of what sort of preparation might be needed, so you

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Speaker 2: know where maybe there are certain populations that are quite

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Speaker 2: restricted so they're not likely to spread too much, but

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Speaker 2: maybe there are others that are quite there'll be a

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Speaker 2: lot more spread. So just I think it's just more

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Speaker 2: that preparation and really understanding whether it can assistence, you know,

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Speaker 2: in terms of sort of trying to control certain mid species,

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Speaker 2: particularly during an outbreak, so they sort of just it's

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Speaker 2: just really trying to improve preparedness and help with the surveillance,

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Speaker 2: early surveillance so to detect any diseases that come in.

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Speaker 1: Make saying how long is the study is sort of

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Speaker 1: going for and how do you hope or what will

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Speaker 1: happen with those findings, how will they be.

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Speaker 2: Used this project? There will be a PhD project, so

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Speaker 2: three years, so we'll be recruiting a student and working

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Speaker 2: with an othern churchy government. What I'm just really hoping

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Speaker 2: is that because it's collaborating with an othern churchary government

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Speaker 2: with the researchers in the veterinary animal bisecurity area, that

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Speaker 2: the information will go straight to where it's needed, so

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Speaker 2: you know, it will be useful for them. You will

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Speaker 2: understand what they need to know and we can then

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Speaker 2: put that information into the right spots really and it

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Speaker 2: can be then used for preparedness activities and their understanding.

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Speaker 2: So at the moment, three years, we'd love to expand

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Speaker 2: we'll see what happened.

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Speaker 1: Good on you like? It sounds like I said, it

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Speaker 1: sounds like really common sense, and it sounds like a

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Speaker 1: good thing to do, you know, for industry as well,

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Speaker 1: to have that certainty and a better understanding of the

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Speaker 1: way in which you know things can happen, to try

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Speaker 1: to you know, to try to help industry in those

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Speaker 1: and livestock.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look at I think there's already been work done

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Speaker 2: to try and stimulate what's going to happen if a

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Speaker 2: disease comes in, but we haven't really had probably as

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Speaker 2: much data that would really support that simulation and epidemiological modeling.

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Speaker 2: So I think this sort of data just really helps

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Speaker 2: to improve our understanding and just giving us some just

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Speaker 2: some more information, and particularly that's relevant to Northern Australia.

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Speaker 2: So often you know, there can be more for Southern Australia,

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Speaker 2: but Northern Australia is on the front line for a

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Speaker 2: lot of these diseases.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you spot on well magazine PI get really good

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Speaker 1: to speak with you this morning. I really appreciate your time.

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Speaker 2: No, thanks very much for the interest.

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Speaker 1: Thank you