Following on from the 31st National Fruit Fly Council (NFFC) meeting, the Council will be hosting a joint meeting with the SITplus Strategic Advisory Committee (SAC).

SITplus is a consortia of research organisations working through the Hort Innovation Fruit Fly fund focussing on refining the use of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) across fruit fly, in particular Queensland fruit fly.

SIT is a biological pest control method, which employs the mass rearing and release of overwhelming numbers of sterile insects across an area. When the sterile insects mate with the wild pest population, no offspring result, leading to a decline in population.

The SAC is an advisory body constituted of the institutes and funders contributing to develop the use of SIT as a tool in the Area-Wide Management of Queensland fruit fly (Bactrocera tryoni) via the Hort Innovation Fruit Fly Fund. Members of the SAC include Hort Innovation, Macquarie University, Primary Industries and Regions South Australia (PIRSA), South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI). New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Plant and Food Research Limited, Agriculture Victoria, CSIRO, and Biosecurity Tasmania.

“As a number of research projects funded through this program are reaching maturity it is an opportune time for the Council to meet and better understand where this important body of research is at, what knowledge gaps still remain and how SIT will be employed in the future,” said Stuart Burgess, NFFC Manager.

The results of projects such as the Post Factory Pilot of SITPlus Fly Production (FF17001), which has successfully operated two trial release sites in New South Wales and Victoria over the last three years, will be invaluable in shaping how SIT will be more broadly incorporated into our management of fruit fly.