National Biosecurity Challenges

Diseases, weeds, invasive animals and insects can inflict devastating damage to our crops, livestock and farm profits, to our unique environment and occasionally human health.

Australia’s favourable biosecurity status underpins lower food production costs for primary producers and access to export markets while supporting Australia’s contribution to a secure global food supply and protecting our environmental assets, way of life and community.

Thankfully, with Australia’s geographic isolation and history of strong quarantine measures, backed by world-class science and research, we have been spared from some of the serious impacts of exotic pests and diseases.

Now, however, we are facing a greater challenge.

Increases in global trade and movement of animals, plants and people, combined with a changing climate and declining levels of expertise and resources in biosecurity research, are placing growing pressure on Australia’s future ability to protect itself from exotic pest and disease threats.

These pressures will only continue to expand in the future.

This increasingly complex environment requires new and integrated approaches to biosecurity and to play its part CSIRO has established the Biosecurity Flagship.

This new National Research Flagship is focused on helping to protect the health of our farming sector, environment and people by assembling the strongest multidisciplinary research teams available to tackle our major national and international biosecurity challenges.

Our research

Our research will address Australia’s major biosecurity challenges and involve the detailed study of invasive organisms, pests and diseases, risk analysis, predictive modelling and new treatment strategies.

These new research synergies will allow us to more effectively address the nation’s Biosecurity research priorities, which include:

• minimising the risk of entry, establishment or spread of pests and disease
• effectively dealing with exotic incursions and endemic outbreaks in a timely manner
• controlling and eradicating post-incursion and mitigate the impact of established pests and disease
• effectively demonstrating the absence of significant pests and diseases for economic prosperity.

Through the Flagship, we will bring together the critical areas of One Health – a combined approach to animal, human and environmental health – and work closely with a wide range of external partners across the national biosecurity system to respond to Australia’s long-term biosecurity needs in a more coordinated and focused research effort.

We will also provide industry with improved control strategies to reduce impacts of emerging and established diseases and pests, as well as specialist training for professionals with responsibilities for prevention of and response to outbreaks.

Partnering for impact

The Flagship will focus our biosecurity research efforts and promote further collaboration between CSIRO, Federal and State governments, Universities, Cooperative Research Centres, and other national and international research agencies and industries.

Improved coordination of research will support an enhanced national ability to safeguard public health, the environment and the economy into the future.

The research outcomes and tools from this research will better inform government decision making including policy development, threat characterisation, risk management, mitigation and emergency response, for the benefit of Australia.

Our biosecurity research successes

We have a proud history in a number of areas of biosecurity research, including protecting Australia’s livestock industries from major disease threats, dealing with invasive animals and plants, and characterising future risks for Australia.

A few of our many success stories include:

• building capacity in diagnostics and emergency response for assisting in the prevention of substantial impact of devastating diseases of animals and plants
• integrated management strategies for invasive alien pests in agriculture
• development and evaluation of important vaccines, with a current focus on a Hendra virus horse vaccine
• biological control of many exotic weeds of production landscapes and the wider environment.

In spite of such successes, invasive weeds, animal and insect pests are still present or arriving in Australia, having major impacts on our production and natural landscapes, and costing the nation billions of dollars annually.

Worldwide, we are experiencing diseases of wildlife and livestock that can pose a threat to humans including, Hendra virus, avian influenza and insect-borne diseases like dengue fever.

Our work at the CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong, Victoria, to combat these devastating viruses is in many cases leading the world. 

This unique facility offers advanced technology and infrastructure, specialised robotics and microscopy equipment and animal facilities at all levels of biosecurity, up to physical containment level 4.

Like CSIRO’s other National Research Flagships, the Biosecurity Flagship will assemble the strongest multidisciplinary teams to tackle major national and international challenges.

Download our Biosecurity Flagship brochure [PDF 1.04MB].

Learn more about CSIRO’s National Research Flagships.