Biosirt Blog January 2011

Happy New Year Everyone!

Hello everyone and welcome to 2011.

Many of us got off to a challenging start because of the widespread flooding in many parts of eastern Australia. The Biosecurity Information Network section has been involved as part of the DAFF Biosecurity Services Group business continuity arrangements, including keeping in touch with the Northern Australian Quarantine Strategy to ensure damage to telecommunications infrastructure does not adversely impact BioSIRT business. Marg Coonan-Jones also did her bit as a MAPS volunteer in Brisbane producing maps of flooded towns with facilities including evacuation centres, recovery centres, and evacuated people. The floods have had a serious impact and our thoughts are with our colleagues.

Training

At the end of 2010 Administrator training was delivered to an enthusiastic group in Perth. There were participants from WA, Australian Wildlife Health Network and the BioSIRT NCT.

Four modules of Advanced Administrator Training —BioSIRT Coordinator in an Emergency Response, Reports, Mapping and Administrator Oversight—are next scheduled for delivery in Adelaide. Likely dates are in the week of 28 March and will be confirmed. Level 1, 2 and 3 Administrators who are interested in participating can be nominated on the new training course page on Gov Dex

Recruitment

There have been some changes in staffing on the BioSIRT NCT!

On December 31 2010 Frecko completed his secondment from LHPA to DAFF as the NCT’s BioSIRT Senior Administrator. He has returned to his position with the LHPA. We wish Frecko all the best on his return to Young and thank him for his outstanding contribution to the BioSIRT program over the last three years. Frecko has been contracted, on a part-time short term basis to complete a hand over to the new appointee to ensure no disruption to the valuable work of this role.

The NCT position was won by Stephen Pratt - currently the BioSIRT technical officer. Stephen will commence in his new role on 31 January. Congratulations Stephen! The technical officer position will be filled as soon as possible.

Kymme Hoadley is taking leave from the NCT from the 8 February 2011 to work with the Australian Biosecurity Intelligence Network as a Software Applications trainer We will be recruiting for the NCT’s Training and Communications Officer position shortly.

We welcome Martin Bockwinkel back to the BIN team as of Monday 17 January.   Martin has been engaged by the Office of the Chief Plant Protection Officer to work with Rochelle Boyce-Bacon on the National Fruit Fly Rollout. Martin will be driving forward the national data aggregation and building of processes and routines to enable the export of data from jurisdictional workspaces and subsequent import of the data into the national workspace.

So exciting times for the Biosecurity Information Network team, with the departure of familiar faces and opportunities for change and growth ahead in 2011.

Breaking News!

New ACERA project approved.

Rochelle Christian has obtained approval from the DAFF Steering Committee of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Risk Analysis (ACERA) for a project on ‘Implementing Risk-based Trace Priorities in BioSIRT’. The project will fund ACERA researchers to review risk-based methods for prioritizing tracing and work with the National BioSIRT Program to develop and implement improved decision tables in BioSIRT to support the prioritisation of tracing in an emergency response for plant pests and diseases. The budget includes $20k for any necessary enhancements to the BioSIRT application.

Contract negotiations are yet to commence. ACERA have recently recruited a statistician and ecologist, Jo Potts, who will arrive from Britain in a few weeks. Discussions with her regarding her involvement as the research fellow to carry out the bulk of the work for the project will commence on the 24 January.

BioSIRT and National Wildlife Disease Surveillance

The Australian Wildlife Health Network (AWHN)1 is a national government initiative that links Australian, state and territory agriculture, public health and veterinary agencies and laboratories; wildlife, conservation and environmental agencies; and overseas wildlife health centres.

AWHN administers Australia’s wildlife health information system, including a central web-enabled database known as the electronic Wildlife Health Information System (eWHIS). Information in this database is collected from a number of sources in each state and territory, covering wildlife disease events such as OIE List Diseases, bat viral diseases (e.g. Australian Bat Lyssavirus), mass mortality events and unusual diseases, as well as the results of targeted wildlife surveillance projects such as avian influenza surveillance in wild birds. Information collated by AWHN supports the protection of human and animal health, biodiversity and trade, and contributes to national and international reporting.

AWHN is working towards a closer integration of wildlife health data into the national animal health information system. Consistent with this aim, AWHN plans to bring eWHIS into the BioSIRT system as NeWHIS, the National Wildlife Health Information System. An assessment of the BioSIRT data model found it was suitable for wildlife health information management and the project to move eWHIS into BioSIRT is now underway.

The project has the potential to improve linkage and information flow between the state and territory agencies, and with the Australian Biosecurity Intelligence Network (ABIN).

AWHN staff have been trained as BioSIRT administrators, and a plan is in place for building BioSIRT templates for general and targeted wildlife surveillance projects.

Abalone Viral Ganglioneuritis (AVG) in Tasmania

Abalone Viral Ganglioneuritis (AVG) is a highly virulent herpes-like-virus, previously undescribed in Australia. The virus affects the nervous tissue of abalone and rapidly causes death. The virus can be spread through direct contact with infected hosts, through the water column, and in mucus that terminally-infected abalone produce.

A state disease control centre has been set up in Hobart to determine the seriousness of an outbreak of AVG found at an abalone farm and a processing plant at Bicheno. The disease hit the Victorian abalone industry badly in 2006 and there are fears that wastewater discharged from the Bicheno abalone farm could infect wild stock. A team of 20 staff from agencies of the Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment Department has been formed to tackle the outbreak.

DPIWE staff will be using the BioSIRT AVG template for collecting data during the emergency response. Tasmania was the lead on the development of the AVG template for use in an emergency response.