THE AUSTRALIAN PLANT PEST DATABASE
Dr Ian Naumann
SPSCBP Program Director
Office of the Chief Plant Protection Officer
Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
INTRODUCTION
In addition to looking after the collection and providing taxonomic support to quarantine
services and agricultural industries, taxonomists increasingly need to be proficient in the
use of electronic databases to manage disease records and other data held in the
collection. Many curators regard access to computer indexing or databasing systems as a
priority.
Specialised information technology systems are available which facilitate the convenient
and rapid location of specimens and disease records held in collections. The software
needed for this task is relatively inexpensive, however there needs to be an ongoing
commitment from the relevant institutions to allocate resources for data entry. Another
major consideration in the development of any database is the quality and quantity of the
underlying information. In many institutions, a significant amount of work is required in
the taxonomic area, both in validating existing records and clearing a backlog of
unidentified specimens. It is also important that countries establish minimum data
standards for their pest records to ensure that they can meet the international standard set
out under ISPM No. 8.
The following Section provides an example of one approach for managing disease
records. It describes the Australian Plant Pest Database (APPD), which utilises
distributed database technology to link diverse, geographically isolated databases so that
all of the available data can be accessed from a single point. In a sense, the technology
creates a single, virtual national (or regional) database that can be maintained and
regularly updated at the local level. Located on the Internet, the APPD provides a
gateway to information existing in many different Australian databases.
PLANT HEALTH AND DISTRIBUTED DATABASES
The APPD provides the plant health scientist with convenient and quick access to
information by drawing on pest records residing in over 20 geographically isolated
collection databases (Figure 1). The records hold information on: current scientific and
common name, taxonomy, collection locality (including geo-coding), collection date,
collector name, collection accession number and host plant.
The database can be queried dynamically, by using more than one field, for example, by
host plant and geographic locality. The distributed database is also able to consolidate
pest record information across agencies, allowing a national perspective on the status of a
particular pest, and record verification.
The APPD is a plant health tool, which can be used for agricultural trade, emergency
exotic and endemic pest management. Similar distributed database systems have been
developed elsewhere using different technology, according to user needs and data
structure. It is anticipated that many of these biologically based distributed databases will
eventually reside within the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
infrastructure.
Figure 1: How the APPD works
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS FOR SUCCESS OF THE APPD
Solutions to the following challenges have been critical to the implementation and value
of the Australian Plant Pest Database.
1. Funding
Following from the 1995 Nairn review of quarantine, and recommendation of the
development of a national pest and disease system, Commonwealth Budget Initiative
funding was provided for the development of the APPD. The funding was facilitated
through Plant Health Australia (PHA), with a small proportion overall for the design of
the distributed database software (see 2. Heterogenous systems), and the majority as seed
money to initiate databasing activities within pest collections. Substantial in-kind
contributions were provided to the APPD network by agencies who were custodians of
the collections, in the form of taxonomic expertise, staff and equipment.
2. Heterogenous systems
Australian plant pest collections are heterogenous in the way information is stored within
local databases (e.g. locality data may occupy a single, or several fields), and the means
by which the information is stored (different database packages, such as Microsoft
Access, BioLink or Texpress). “Wrapping” software designed by CSIRO Mathematics
and Information Sciences (CMIS), overcame these local differences, allowing the central
“broker” software (Figure 1) to recognise the differently formatted information, and then
to translate it into a homogenous, consolidated report for the user.
3. Management
A Steering Committee was formed to oversee the development, population and
implementation of the APPD. This included the guidelines for all APPD stakeholders in
the APPD Rules of Operation. The Rules of Operation addresses data sharing, security,
record standards, data reliability, agency commitment and access issues. Membership of
the Steering Committee consists of curators, collection and plant health agency
representatives, with the OCPPO as secretariat.
4. Priorities
A streamlined approach towards datacapture was established, so that the benefits of the
APPD would prevail in the immediate future. Select pest groups were chosen based on
their significance as plant pests and well-defined pest taxonomy. Priority taxa included
taxa from fungal, arthropod and nematode groups. Some additional (non-priority) taxa
were permitted for datacapture, on a case-by-case basis.
Support was given to Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS, Environment
Australia) towards the development name lists of mutual interest. This assisted the
dissemination of important pest taxonomy data that may be less accessible through
written publications.
APPD OUTPUTS

Easy access to important plant pest records held in around 20 Australian
collections;

1,000,000 plant pathogen, arthropod and nematode records by mid 2004;

A unique, cross institutional partnership of taxonomic specialists, collection
curators, plant health scientists, industry, State and Commonwealth
government scientists and policy makers;

A model to other countries and regions aiming to establish similar virtual
collections.
EXAMPLES OF APPD BENEFITS
Case study 1: Support of trade decisions
AFFA makes extensive use of the APPD to underpin its negotiations with other countries
when Australian industries are seeking access to new markets. Guignardia citricarpa, is
a debilitating bacterial disease of citrus also cosmetically damaging to fruit. Its status is
considered quarantinable. By mapping locality data of the disease against commercial
citrus areas of Australia (Figure 2), it is revealed that the disease has not been recorded in
citrus exporting areas of Australia, and thus supports Australia’s overseas market access
bid based on area freedom.
Figure 2: Guignardia citricarpa area of freedom in Australia
Case study 2: Pest biology
By amalgamating information from various collections, the APPD can provide useful
information for endemic pest incursion management. The APPD can provide a national
picture of pest biology for a given species, and this information can then be used to
predict future, local scale incursions and potential host plants or alternate hosts
(“refugia”) that may assist in distributing a local scale incursion.
Pest record data also provides a primary information source to specialists, contributing to
existing pest knowledge from available literature. The APPD facilitates information
exchange as scientists can identify previously unknown information by remotely
accessing individual collections and using different parameters to search multiple
records.
For example, Helicoverpa armigera and the related H. punctigera are responsible for
$A200 million in annual damage in control costs in cotton alone.
A search of the APPD reveals, for example:

Whether regional differences in seasonality or host preference exist; and

Which alternate host plants might serve as “refugia” in managing resistance to
transgenic cotton.
Case study 3: Emergency response
The APPD may also be used to develop responses to suspected invasions of exotic pests.
For example, in 2002, a new record of an apple disease Alternaria mali was notified to
the OCPPO. New taxonomic information had indicated that the disease may have been
recorded as A. alternata and Alternaria sp. The Office of the Chief Plant Protection
Officer searched the APPD fungal and host records, analysed symptom information and
was able to determine that A. mali was already established in Australia. The Plant Health
Committee then agreed not to proceed with further emergency response.