White House seeks input on tightening rules for risky pathogen research

#NSABB recommended expanding the reviews beyond 15 “select agents” to cover proposals to study any human, animal, or plant pathogen in seven types of experiments. One scientist has called this “a potential for disaster” that would require reviews of routine, relatively low-risk studies, such as certain experiments on cold viruses and viruses modified to fight cancer. #biosecurity #GOF #OSTP
https://www.science.org/content/article/white-house-seeks-input-tightening-rules-risky-pathogen-research

Climate change is helping to boost the spread of invasive species, which as the article points out, can have impacts globally, even though the species may only be in a few countries.

Be careful about moving insects and weed seeds around with you when you travel!

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/5/from-toads-to-bugs-un-says-invasive-species-rising-at-unprecedented-rate

#ClimateChange #InvasiveSpecies #GlobalTrade #Biosecurity

Invasive species No 1 driver of biodiversity loss in Australia – and feral cats have biggest impact, report finds

"Australasia has been identified as a global hotspot for invasive species. In Australia, invasive species are the number one driver of biodiversity loss"

"Feral cats have the greatest environmental impact..."

"Australia has lost more native mammal species than any other continent, with more than 100 species listed as either extinct or extinct in the wild.'

“This report makes it clear that the Albanese government’s commitment to ‘no new extinctions’ will be no more than a slogan without increased focus and funding needed to prevent the next wave of invasive species."

“Invasive species are likely to be a primary driver of 85% of the next round of predicted vertebrate extinctions over the next 20 years"

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/04/invasive-species-no-1-driver-of-biodiversity-loss-in-australia-and-feral-cats-have-biggest-impact-report-finds
#NativeFlora #NativeFauna #biodiversity #FireAnts #pests #weeds #cats #pets #biosecurity #pathogens #trade #extinction makers

"While it is possible for large insects to fly across the Channel, experts say it is more likely at least some have arrived in soil from potted plants. A recent study found that the dominant pathway for species invasions is the horticulture trade."

Lax post-Brexit trade rules pave way for invasive species to come to Britain

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/25/post-brexit-trade-rules-invasive-species-britain-eu-soil

#biosecurity

"Almond Australia chief executive said it may be time for Australia to switch from trying to eradicate varroa mite to managing it as best as possible."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-24/varroa-mite-detection-euroley-and-euston/102772698

What a dilemma. Long term benefit, or this year's financial return? #Capitalism is too predictable
#biosecurity #agriculture #apiculture

Fire Ants: 'Throwing everything at our efforts' reads more like 'playing with the fringes'.

Considering the closing end of Winter, you'd think this would be the last timing to increase the number of field officers doing surveys and baiting in Queensland;
while NSW increase field officers to first deploy on Verroa mites, and redeloy where needed to survey far-north NSW for fire ants.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/16/queensland-and-nsw-authorities-given-stop-and-search-powers-to-halt-red-fire-ant-infestation
#NSWPol #QldPol #AusPol #AgChatOz #Biosecurity

Are you bringing a pot plant from Queensland to NSW? You could be risking a million-dollar fine

"The NSW government is warning those convicted of breaking biosecurity controls could face enormous fines as it ramps up efforts to keep dangerous fire ants out of the state".

"The control order prevents high-risk materials such as mulch, woodchip, soil, compost, sand, gravel, baled hay, and turf being moved from within a five-kilometre radius of a site where fire ants were found unless inspected and issued with a certificate by the Queensland Agriculture Department."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-16/two-million-dollar-fire-ant-fines-nsw-invasion-fight-ramps-up/102737340
#pests #NSW #biosecurity #FireAnts #PotPlants #trade

Interesting research challenging the persistent claim that in the 14th century beleaguered Mongols at Caffa hurled their plague dead over the fortress walls.

The fear “is that repeating false claims of past biological #warfare normalizes the idea of intentional use of disease, making the actual use of biological weapons more likely.”

#history #bioweapons #plague #SiegeOfCaffa #biosecurity #BulletinOfTheAtomicScientists

https://thebulletin.org/2023/08/catapulting-corpses-a-famous-case-of-medieval-biological-warfare-probably-never-happened/

Interesting research questioning the persistent myth that 14th century beleaguered Mongols at Caffa hurled their plague dead over the fortress walls.

The fear “is that repeating false claims of past biological #warfare normalizes the idea of intentional use of disease, making the actual use of biological weapons more likely.”

#history #bioweapons #plague #SiegeOfCaffa #biosecurity

https://thebulletin.org/2023/08/catapulting-corpses-a-famous-case-of-medieval-biological-warfare-probably-never-happened/

I love how good of an indicator of lab #biosecurity #Covid is.
I'm looking at twenty labs, and one of them is clearly having regular bioleaks.
"One of these catholic schoolgirls, is actually a total whore. Can you tell which one?" :blobcatcoffee:

There once were two fire ants on the Gold Coast

Who wanted to go to New South Wales.

But cursing their feet

In a Tallebudgera street

They gave up the trip as a failya.

The Ants by Joachim Ringelnatz (1883–1934)
(A very free translation)

https://www.babelmatrix.org/works/de/Ringelnatz,_Joachim-1883/Die_Ameisen/en/32650-The_Ants*

"NSW has taken immediate action to reduce the risk of fire ants entering NSW after fire ants were detected at Tallebudgera, a suburb in the City of the Gold Coast, just 5.5km from the NSW border."
https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/nsw-takes-immediate-action-against-fire-ants

#Ringelnatz #biosecurity #trade #ants #FireAnts

@Sex___Wizard After some googling it seems to be a company called "Created by Nature" and apparently they have a similar thing for all US states. #biosecurity
https://www.createdbynature.com/

Biosecurity for Life: setting up rapid incursion response hubs

https://biosecurityforlife.org.uk/blog/2023-07-24-ready-to-respond

#Biosecurity #BiosecurityLIFE #EULife

Knew it was too optimistic to think NSW floods would do something about varroa mites.

Several months on and it’s still a problem.
NSW should be held to answer to a national inquiry - it’s a problem that potentially affects the entire nation
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-31/beekeepers-nsw-hunter-question-success-varroa-mite-response/102659386
#AusPol #NSWPol #AgChatOz #Biosecurity

@Nonya_Bidniss I feel that the US legal system needs to fully fund safety for biolabs, so that labs don't have an incentive to run them in secret under unsafe conditions. Everybody wins this way.
#biosecurity

"Oh, there's the Level C hazmat team plucking a thousand dead birds per day. Let's walk up and talk to them while they work. We'll be keeping a distance of two meters, so we're fine. :blobcatcoffee: "
#birdflu #hazmat #biosecurity #retarded

Investigation on Reedley building uncovers bio, health hazards in an illegal lab including infectious agents and upwards of 1,000 white mice "genetically engineered to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus.”

"the #CDC found potentially infectious agents...both bacterial and viral agents, including: chlamydia, E. Coli, streptococcus pneumonia, hepatitis B and C, herpes 1 and 5 and rubella. The CDC also found samples of malaria."
#biosecurity

https://midvalleytimes.com/article/news/2023/07/25/investigation-on-reedley-building-uncovers-bio-health-hazards/

NSW Fire ants alert
"NSW imposes movement restrictions on materials from Qld in fight against fire ants
The NSW government is trying to keep the destructive pest from entering the state."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-24/nsw-imposes-movement-restriction-queensland-fire-ants/102638106

"Red imported fire ants
are invasive exotic ants that cause serious social, economic, and environmental harm. They are aggressive and have a severe, burning sting.
Anyone bringing hay, turf, soil, mulch, potted plants or machinery into NSW from Queensland should check the measures that must be implemented before entering NSW."
https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/biosecurity/insect-pests/fire-ants

Report an Exotic Ant, NSW DPI
https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/biosecurity/forms/report-exotic-ants
#ants #Biosecurity #insects #machinery #vehicles #trade #PottedPlants #PlantFair #Bellingen #NSW #GoldCoast #pests #biodiversity

#AI #GenerativeAI #BioTech #BioSecurity #BioWeapons: "Researchers at MIT recently conducted an experiment. They asked undergraduate students to test whether AI-driven chatbots could be prompted to assist non-experts in causing a pandemic. Within an hour the chatbots had suggested four potential pandemic pathogens, explained how they could be created from synthetic DNA using reverse genetics, and supplied the names of DNA synthesis companies judged unlikely to screen orders.

Developing bioweapons is not that easy, and chatbot instructions currently only go so far, but the experiment shows what can happen when AI technology barrels through scientific knowledge. The troubling fact is that large language models and new biological design tools are dramatically lowering the barriers to engineering the next pandemic. The former Google CEO Eric Schmidt describes AI-designed bioweapons as “a very near-term concern”."

https://www.ft.com/content/01d411ec-41be-4192-b6b5-550684c91849

OnlineFirst - "Shrimp in labs: Biosecurity and hydro-social life" by Yu-Kai Liao:

#hydrosociality #biosecurity #laboratory #shrimp #aquaculture

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/25148486231174302