Guarding against pest and disease invasion is a key component of Australia's National Plant Health Strategy. Rapid recognition of Emergency Plant Pests is critical to ensure appropriate response strategies are implemented.
Museum collections and their extensive international networks can play a major role in providing identification resources to assist Australia’s Biosecurity requirements.
One such way is through the website PaDIL (Pests and Diseases Image Library) - a new biosecurity tool that can greatly enhance response strategies.
PaDIL is a Commonwealth Government initiative, developed and built by Museum Victoria's Online Publishing Team, with support provided by DAFF (Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) and PHA (Plant Health Australia), a non-profit public company.
Project partners also include Museum Victoria, the Western Australian Department of Agriculture and the Queensland University of Technology.
- Production of high quality images showing primarily exotic targeted organisms of plant health concern to Australia.
- Assist with plant health diagnostics in all areas, from initial to high level.
- Capacity building for diagnostics in plant health, including linkage developments between training and research organisations.
- Create and use educational tools for training undergraduates/postgraduates.
- Engender public awareness about plant health concerns in Australia.