The program is researching and developing surveillance and cutting-edge diagnostic technologies including custom-designed mobile surveillance units (termed ‘sentinels’) that incorporate specialised airborne trapping equipment and technology.
Sentinels are deployed to various locations around the country to capture airborne samples that are examined in a laboratory to test the presence or absence of priority pests and pathogens.
Hort Innovation’s research and development manager Jessica Holliday said the program aimed to lay the foundations for a national surveillance system capable of rapidly monitoring and reporting the presence of airborne pests and diseases for multiple agricultural sectors, including viticulture, grains, horticulture and forestry.
iMapPESTS is delivering six sentinels by the end of 2020.
Sentinels will be deployed to different environments and crops around the country next year for extensive testing and optimisation.
Each is equipped with several airborne samplers, power supply, a weather sensor, telemetry and an industrial computer for remote control and monitoring.
They also include automated technology to configure samplers for different sampling requirements.
“The newest unit, Sentinel 4, is smarter, smaller, lighter and more flexible compared with earlier sentinels, which is particularly important in the current COVID-19 environment where movement of people and goods are restricted in some parts of the country,” Ms Holliday said.
“Nearing the end of this phase of iMapPESTS, in 2021 we will be able to focus on deploying all six sentinels to multiple strategic locations across the country for in-field trialling.”
The program began in 2017 and will continue until 2023.
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