Fruit Fly Body of Knowledge

Fruit flies can have a major impact on Australia’s capacity to trade in domestic and international horticultural markets. Fruit flies do not recognise orchard,paddock, domestic or state, regional boundaries and jurisdictions. Fruit flies are highly mobile, capable of flying short distances and being transported long distances. They also have the potential to infect a wide range of crops. Also, unlike many other plant pests, the management of these pests cannot be conducted solely on farm and the loss of control on a particular property can have significant financial and trade implications for commercial regions and the wider community.

Management of biosecurity threats presented by fruit flies requires integrated access to diverse information sources. There was a critical need for the sector to access information that is known to exist but is difficult to find. Until 2009, relevant information was housed in a large number of locations and unable to be accessed outside of the institution or jurisdiction. It remained in a format that makes complex searches impossible. In some cases valuable information was lost as researchers retired and government agencies changed focus. In 2009, the Office of the Chief Plant Protection Officer funded the Fruit Fly Body of Knowledge Project (BoK) for the collection of all data relating to fruit flies available in Australia.

The Fruit Fly Body of Knowledge (BoK) repository underpins the implementation of Australia’s National Fruit Fly Strategy by supporting decision-making, risk assessment and fruit fly management though access to technical and surveillance knowledge held in the BoK.

Working with Plant Health Australia and the Office of the Chief Plant Protection Officer at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, ABIN has delivered search, sort and analysis tools and information management standards to be applied to unstructured data sets in secure and non-secure environments in the Fruit Fly Body of Knowledge (BoK) repository.

To request access to the Fruit Fly Body of Knowledge community space, or contact the Community Space Moderator.