Australasian Association of Nematologists

Association News

1. Summary of previous meeting in Perth 1997 was presented by I. Riley.

2. J. Stanton presented a President’s report (as attached).

3. In the absence of the Treasurer (R. Potter) a report was presented by I. Riley. The current bank account balance was $5,894.52 and there had not been expenditure since the last meeting. Deposits of membership dues by I. Riley had been $480 in 1999, $500 in 1998 and $180 in the last three months of 1997 i.e. following the meeting in Perth.

4. Election of office bearers.

President – M. Hodda was elected unopposed.
Treasurer – J. Lewis was elected unopposed.
Secretary – I. Riley was re-elected unopposed.
Newsletter editor – J. Cobon was re-elected unopposed.
Committee member – T. Pattison was elected unopposed.

It was resolved that signatories for the Association’s bank account be changed to M. Hodda, J. Lewis and I. Riley (any two to sign).

5. Membership report.

I Riley indicated the Association nominally had about 76 members of which 34 were financial, 18 were less than 1 year overdue and 24 that were more than 1 year in arrears. The matter of members in arrears was discussed and it was resolved to advise members more than 1 year in arrears that their membership be terminated.

6. Other business.

The association had been asked to provide suggestions for the scientific program for the Fourth International Congress of Nematology. Members were encouraged to make suggestion to be provided to the committee by January 2000. AAN had been asked to provide funds to assist participants from developing countries to attend the Congress. It was felt that our income base was too small to be able to make a significant contribution and many were in effect contributing through SON. The association had been approached to consider hosting the congress in 2008. It was thought that Adelaide members could discuss this possibility.

Potential uses for current funds were discussed but no resolutions made.

The next nematology workshop will be held in conjunction with APPS in 2001 in Cairns. Tony Pattison offered to coordinate the workshop and suggested possible topics of marine nematodes or tropical plant parasitic nematodes.

Meeting closed at 7.20 pm.

AAN President’s Report – 1999

AAN has had another successful two years maintaining its financial membership at over 70, with about 80% from Australia and 10% each from New Zealand and other countries. We continue to produce two informative newsletters each year.

We now have a web site! It is hosted by the State Library of Queensland Community Web Publishing Project. It contains information about the society, newsletters, links and other interesting bits. The address is:

http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/cwpp/aan/

Thanks to Graham Stirling, Julie Nicol and Frances Reay, AAN has also completed and published its Advisory Services for Nematode Pests: Operational Guidelines. Free copies were given to each AAN member and additional copies are available from RIRDC.

For the fifth APPS conference in a row, AAN has put together a very useful workshop. Thanks very much to Mike Hodda, Felice Driver and John Curran for organising such a successful event.

AAN is now a member of the International Federation of Nematological Societies (IFNS). This puts us in a position to contribute to nematology internationally, but also imposes directions which we may not have envisaged previously. We are a small organisation with very few full-time nematologists so our collective effort will be much smaller than that of societies such as SON, ESN and ONTA. We should decide soon what our priorities are and how much we want to contribute to IFNS activities.

Thanks to all the committee members for their valuable contributions throughout the biennium.

Julie Stanton

From the President

I would like to thank all those who came along to the recent General Meeting of the Association and nematology workshop in Canberra, held as usual in conjunction with the Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference. I hope that everyone had a stimulating and productive time. The profile achieved by nematology, nematodes and nematologists within the larger APPS meeting was very gratifying and I hope bodes well for the future of our Association. The range of interests in nematodes, from plant pathology through taxonomy to ecology and free-living nematodes was also an indication of the strength of the discipline. Another indication of the interest in nematodes is that, by the time of publication, Kerrie Davies and myself will have presented courses on nematology to 25 students in Adelaide. We plan another course in about 2 years time, so please plan ahead and book early because we had to turn people away this time.

On other business: of the items discussed at the recent General meeting, one which I would like to follow up is the suggestion to recognise the achievements of the nematologists who have contributed so much to what we now almost universally take for granted. The idea, as I understand, is to have links from the International Federation of Nematology Societies web site to pages for each of these people. I think it is important for it to be recognised that Australia has a very strong history of nematology and nematologists. I am tempted to claim N.A. Cobb for Australia because he started his career in nematology at the distinctively Australian named town of Wagga Wagga not far from Canberra where I write. Of course Canberra was just a sheep paddock in Cobb's time. Cobb spent over several years here before moving on to Sydney and thence back to the US after more than 10 years in Australia. In the US he is credited with founding the study of nematology, and even inventing the term.

Cobb aside, I would like to suggest 3 people who in their respective fields have made immense contributions to both nematology in Australia and the society or its forebears. All 3 are now retired but continue to make contributions to nematology.

Bob Colbran: nematode taxonomist and pathologist who described many species and nematode problems from Queensland.

Alan Bird: nematode anatomist, physiologist and microscopist, who has made many and varied contributions. Alan was editor of this newsletter for many years and author of many books on nematodes.

Warwick Nicholas: nematode taxonomist, physiologist, and culture specialist, who has made many contributions to the study of free-living nematodes. Warwick was also a former editor of this newsletter and author of 2 books on free-living nematodes.

I welcome suggestions and comments on this proposal, and intend actually creating the pages early in 2000 if there are no strong objections.

Mike Hodda

Alan Bird

We regret to inform you of the death in December of our long standing member Alan Bird. A full obituary will appear in the next issue of our newsletter.

The Chinese Society of Nematologists joins the IFNS

Dear Dr. Liao,

It is a pleasure to officially welcome you and the Chinese Society of Nematologists as the latest Society to become affiliated with the International Federation of Nematology Societies. We received positive votes from all IFNS Councillors responding on your request with most Councillors voting.

We shall look forward to working with you and your associates as we pursue the goal of advancing the awareness of nematodes and their study worldwide. Thanks again for the information on your Society as related to our new IFNS Web Page. Safia Siddiqi, who has developed this program, may contact you for additional materials (such as photographs) for the Web Page.

Please feel free to contact any of your fellow IFNS Councillors at any time as questions arise, or if we can be of assistance. Again, we are delighted to have the Chinese Society of Nematologists affiliated with our Federation. Within a few days, I will E-mail updated lists of the Presidents and IFNS Councillors (with their addresses) for each affiliated Nematology Society.

Sincerely yours,

Kenneth R. Barker
President - IFNS
Box 7616, Plant Pathology Department
N. C. State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7616 USA
Phone: 919/515-3330
Fax: 919/515-7716

Welcome to new AAN members

Since our last newsletter we welcome 13 new members:

Prof Diana Wall (Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA)
Ruabete Takaniko (Koroniva Agricultural Research Station, Nausour, FIJI)
Sidney Suma (Ruma Sugar Ltd, Lae, FIJI)
Frank Hay (University of Tasmania, Burnie, TAS)
Caroline Versteeg (QDPI, South Johnstone, QLD)
Rebecca Zwart (Leslie Research Centre, Toowoomba, QLD)
Fiona Cooper (Agriculture Victoria, VIC)
Sean Kelly (Agriculture Western Australia, WA)
Scott Patton (Cyanamid Agriculture, Scarborough, WA)
Emma Broos (University Of Western Sydney, Richmond, NSW)
Iqbal Zahid (University of Sydney, Orange, NSW)
Leigh Schmitzer (Taree, NSW)
Nigel Bell (Rurakura Research Centre, Hamilton, NZ)

New web site address

There is a new biocontrol (natural enemies) of nematodes web site that may be of interest to some:

http://sacs.cpes.peachnet.edu/nemabc/