On Oct. 29, Dr. Marion Healy, First Assistant Secretary of Plant Biosecurity, Australi-an Department of Agriculture visited IPP-CAAS. The Department of International Cooperation and Graduate Students of IPP-CAAS organized the meeting with Dr. Healy.

Director Chen Julian warmly welcomed Dr. Marion Healy and the delegation. She briefly introduced the progress in scientific research and interactional cooperation of IPP-CAAS. Dr. Healy said it was a pleasure for her to visit IPP-CAAS and com-municate face-to-face with experts in the plant protection field. It was a good chance to learn the efforts made and strategies employed by IPP-CAAS in control of trans-boundary pests, and discuss the possibility for future collaborations. Then, Dr. Healy made a presentation entitled “Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) Australian Context”, in which she mainly introduced the BMSB risk at the Australian border. She pointed out that the detection rate of BMSB in various goods at the border hassignificantly increased, and the risk to Australian agriculture become more and more serious. Therefore, she though it was a good idea to borrow good experiences of China.

Accordingly, representative scientists and graduate students from IPP-CAAS report-ed their progress in research of agricultural pests and control. Prof. Wang Zhenying from the Department of Agricultural Entomology presented “Fall armyworm, cur-rent situation and actions for management in China”, in which he introduced how the Chinese government quickly responded and organized scientists to overcome the difficulties when the Fall Army Worm (FAW) invaded China in January 2019, and the progress made in FAW researches and control. Assoc. Prof. Zhang Bo from the Department of Biological Control, and Chen Juhong, a master student from MA-RA-CABI Joint Laboratory on Biosecurity presented “Predatory mites: tiny effective biocontrol agents in application” and “Research on Brown Marmorated Stink Bug and Biological Control”, respectively. During the meeting, the two parties had heat-ed discussions on interesting topics. Dr. Healy believed that the progress in research and control of major pests made by scientists from IPP-CAAS was very worth learn-ing. She expressed her willingness to sign agreement in cooperation with IPP-CAAS and develop more cooperation in international projects and exchanges in visiting scientists and students.

Dr. Luke Osborne, Assistant Director of Plant Biosecurity, Australian Department of Agriculture, Mr. Ben Mitchell, Agriculture Counsellor, Australian Embassy in Bei-jing, and Ms. Nancy Zhai, Senior Policy Officer-Agriculture, Australian Embassy in Beijing accompanied the visit. Assoc. Prof. Yang Nianwan from the Department of Biological Invasion, Assoc. Prof. Tian Fang from the Department of International Cooperation and Graduate Students, Liu Lulu, a master student from MARA-CABI Joint Laboratory on Biosecurity attended the meeting.

By Tian Fang (tianfang@caas.cn)