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#biosecurity — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #biosecurity, aggregated by home.social.

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  1. Pineapple growers raise biosecurity concerns as Asian imports considered
    By Tayla Larsen

    Australian producers flag biosecurity worries as the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry considers importing pineapples from India and Indonesia.

    abc.net.au/news/rural/2026-08-

    #Biosecurity #TradeAgreements #Horticulture #FruitGrowing #AgriculturalCrops #TaylaLarsen

  2. Pineapple growers raise biosecurity concerns as Asian imports considered
    By Tayla Larsen

    Australian producers flag biosecurity worries as the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry considers importing pineapples from India and Indonesia.

    abc.net.au/news/rural/2026-08-

    #Biosecurity #TradeAgreements #Horticulture #FruitGrowing #AgriculturalCrops #TaylaLarsen

  3. One week. That may be all it takes.

    A biological attack triggers a pandemic. Hospitals buckle. Supply chains fail. Governments lose control. Social order begins to collapse.

    Could a biological weapon prove even more destabilizing than a nuclear strike?

    Annie Jacobsen’s “Biological War: A Scenario” explores how frighteningly fast it could happen.

    youtu.be/Oe2aHMxqUHk

    #BiologicalWar #Bioweapons #Biosecurity #Pandemic #AnnieJacobsen #NationalSecurity

  4. ‘Consumers cannot inspect supply chains or test what is inside a packet. They trust what is on the label. 

    But food fraud expert Karen Constable says that trust is being exploited.

    "We have a problem with food fraud," she says. ‘

    Yet again it is not only an issue of having too many hands, not in creating and updating appropriate regulations and standards, but too many agencies charged with ‘policing, reporting and prosecuting’ food fraud. Creating a central agency to oversee the enforccement part of Australia’s #BioSecurity agancies is in my view be a necessity, especially due to global supplies and international criminal activities. There is also a case to be made for appropriately funding these activities (#GasTax and #SuperProfitTax anyone?). #FoodFraud ought to be tackled the same way #IllicitDrugTraffic is handled.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-27/foo

    #AusPol

  5. ‘Consumers cannot inspect supply chains or test what is inside a packet. They trust what is on the label. 

    But food fraud expert Karen Constable says that trust is being exploited.

    "We have a problem with food fraud," she says. ‘

    Yet again it is not only an issue of having too many hands, not in creating and updating appropriate regulations and standards, but too many agencies charged with ‘policing, reporting and prosecuting’ food fraud. Creating a central agency to oversee the enforccement part of Australia’s #BioSecurity agancies is in my view be a necessity, especially due to global supplies and international criminal activities. There is also a case to be made for appropriately funding these activities (#GasTax and #SuperProfitTax anyone?). #FoodFraud ought to be tackled the same way #IllicitDrugTraffic is handled.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-27/foo

    #AusPol

  6. Cotton growers race to treat leaf disease after mysterious arrival
    By Megan Hughes

    No-one knows how ramularia leaf spot got to Australia, but growers in Queensland are desperate for a treatment as the fungal disease wreaks havoc on their crops.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-28/ram

    #FungalDisease #CottonGrowing #Biosecurity #MeganHughes

  7. Cotton growers race to treat leaf disease after mysterious arrival
    By Megan Hughes

    No-one knows how ramularia leaf spot got to Australia, but growers in Queensland are desperate for a treatment as the fungal disease wreaks havoc on their crops.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-28/ram

    #FungalDisease #CottonGrowing #Biosecurity #MeganHughes

  8. Screening for Function, not just Sequence: A proposed successor to IARPA's FunGCAT program doi.org/hccvjq #biosecurity

    Screening for Function, not ju...

  9. Our tools “are advancing faster than the rules that govern them. This gap is where existential danger lives. The point is not panic; the point is pressure.” We must act “before we set something irreversible in motion.” www.newyorker.com/culture/the-... #biosecurity

    The Rise of the “Scenario,” a ...

  10. "We ask almost every AI architect and leader the same thing in private: What AI risk worries you most? Almost all of them fire back the same response: a killer pathogen, spreading too silently, widely and quickly to stop." www.axios.com/2026/07/24/a... #biosecurity

    Behind the Curtain: The AI tit...

  11. Closure Of The Strait Of Hormuz May Trigger A Bioinvasion Super-Spreader Event
    --
    doi.org/10.1007/s10530-026-038 <-- shared paper / brief report
    --
    theguardian.com/environment/20 <-- shared media article
    --
    ecomagazine.com/news/coastal/i <-- shared technical article
    --
    thedeepdraft.com/2026/06/08/th <-- shared technical article
    --
    youtube.com/watch?v=1aGz7pBF08k <-- shared technicial overview video
    --
    timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sc <-- shared media article
    --
    H/T @alejandro Bortolus | Investigador Principal CONICET
    [“consequences”, fascinating, illuminating and scary frankly!!]
    “The ongoing conflicts in the Middle East are causing substantial humanitarian, economic, and geopolitical impacts and disrupting global trade. While the human and economic effects remain the focus of most immediate concern, a pending ecological crisis is also unfolding. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz on February 28, 2026, stranded an estimated 1,500 ships in the Persian/Arabian Gulf, with hundreds more anchored in the Gulf of Oman. Prolonged stationary periods lead to substantial biofouling penalties for ships, as marine microbes, algae, and invertebrates rapidly colonize and grow on submerged surfaces. This accumulation not only impairs vessel operations but also creates significant environmental risks. A major concern is the high likelihood that these idle ships will facilitate the extensive spread of economically and ecologically damaging invasive species as they re-enter the global shipping network. Given the unprecedented scale and duration of this mass lay-up of ships, conditions are primed for a large-scale, marine bioinvasion “super-spreader” event as regular maritime trade in the region resumes. The combination of extensive biofouling growth and species accumulation, and the sheer number, size, and global reach of affected vessels, has created an immense international biosecurity threat. Here, [they] highlight the biosecurity risks arising from the closure of the Strait and provide recommendations to mitigate them. [They] urge relevant stakeholders worldwide, including ship operators, port authorities, and environmental managers, to prepare now for the backlog of ship biofouling management requirements and to implement appropriate actions to abate this extraordinary biosecurity threat...”
    #bioinvasion #superspreader #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #mapping #global #worldwide #conflict #MiddleEast #biofouling #stationary #warmwater #marine #ship #shipping #cargo #transportation #StraitofHormuz #ecology #crisis #vessel #environmental #risk #hazard #economy #impact #humanimpacts #largescale #maritime #trade #international #biosecurity

  12. Closure Of The Strait Of Hormuz May Trigger A Bioinvasion Super-Spreader Event
    --
    doi.org/10.1007/s10530-026-038 <-- shared paper / brief report
    --
    theguardian.com/environment/20 <-- shared media article
    --
    ecomagazine.com/news/coastal/i <-- shared technical article
    --
    thedeepdraft.com/2026/06/08/th <-- shared technical article
    --
    youtube.com/watch?v=1aGz7pBF08k <-- shared technicial overview video
    --
    timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sc <-- shared media article
    --
    H/T @alejandro Bortolus | Investigador Principal CONICET
    [“consequences”, fascinating, illuminating and scary frankly!!]
    “The ongoing conflicts in the Middle East are causing substantial humanitarian, economic, and geopolitical impacts and disrupting global trade. While the human and economic effects remain the focus of most immediate concern, a pending ecological crisis is also unfolding. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz on February 28, 2026, stranded an estimated 1,500 ships in the Persian/Arabian Gulf, with hundreds more anchored in the Gulf of Oman. Prolonged stationary periods lead to substantial biofouling penalties for ships, as marine microbes, algae, and invertebrates rapidly colonize and grow on submerged surfaces. This accumulation not only impairs vessel operations but also creates significant environmental risks. A major concern is the high likelihood that these idle ships will facilitate the extensive spread of economically and ecologically damaging invasive species as they re-enter the global shipping network. Given the unprecedented scale and duration of this mass lay-up of ships, conditions are primed for a large-scale, marine bioinvasion “super-spreader” event as regular maritime trade in the region resumes. The combination of extensive biofouling growth and species accumulation, and the sheer number, size, and global reach of affected vessels, has created an immense international biosecurity threat. Here, [they] highlight the biosecurity risks arising from the closure of the Strait and provide recommendations to mitigate them. [They] urge relevant stakeholders worldwide, including ship operators, port authorities, and environmental managers, to prepare now for the backlog of ship biofouling management requirements and to implement appropriate actions to abate this extraordinary biosecurity threat...”

  13. The low-authority treatment of external content that helps LLMs resist hijacking with prompt injection also defeats #biosecurity warnings built into external tools doi.org/hcb724

    Prompt injection defenses open...

  14. The limits of sequence-based #biosecurity screening tools in the age of AI-assisted protein design www.frontiersin.org/journals/bio...

  15. Refusal ≠ safety. What 3 recent #biosecurity evals reveal about risk discrimination, over-refusal, and concealed hazards Bonus: we could do some interesting economic modeling on this. blog.stephenturner.us/p/benchmarki.... Kudos to the authors: three very good papers here!

    Benchmarking AI Biosecurity Re...

  16. Safeguarding open-weight genomic foundation models through weight locking pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42465336/ 🧬💻🧪 github.com/Georgakopoul... #biosecurity

  17. NZ detects first case of bird flu in native bird

    Days after a migratory bird tested positive for bird flu in Wellington, authorities have detected a second case of the deadly virus in a native bird.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-17/new

    #Biosecurity #AvianInfluenza #Animals #Influenza

  18. NZ detects first case of bird flu in native bird

    Days after a migratory bird tested positive for bird flu in Wellington, authorities have detected a second case of the deadly virus in a native bird.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-17/new

    #Biosecurity #AvianInfluenza #Animals #Influenza

  19. This really is such a good essay from Jasper Gotting at @[email protected]. Re-reading for the 3rd time, thinking about this "correlates of uplift" component. securebio.substack.com/p/the-role-o... #biosecurity

    The Role of Evals in the Biori...

  20. New Zealand reports first H5N1 bird flu case

    The deadly virus was detected in a brown skua seabird near Wellington, although authorities say there is not yet any evidence of mass mortality or impacts on poultry.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-15/new

    #AvianInfluenza #Biosecurity

  21. New Zealand reports first H5N1 bird flu case

    The deadly virus was detected in a brown skua seabird near Wellington, although authorities say there is not yet any evidence of mass mortality or impacts on poultry.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-15/new

    #AvianInfluenza #Biosecurity

  22. “God has helped us, and so will AI”: How the Terrorist Group Boko Haram Uses Frontier AI casp.ac/reports/ai-e... #biosecurity

  23. “God has helped us, and so will AI”: How the Terrorist Group Boko Haram Uses Frontier AI casp.ac/reports/ai-e... #biosecurity

  24. Off switches for dual-use knowledge, the PhD admissions drop, a Brown cheating mess, the end of reading, AI labs at the bench, and planning for a "Bio Mythos" moment. 1.7k words, 8 min reading time. doi.org/10.59350/0ae...

    Closing my tabs, July 10, 2026

  25. Off switches for dual-use knowledge, the PhD admissions drop, a Brown cheating mess, the end of reading, AI labs at the bench, and planning for a "Bio Mythos" moment. 1.7k words, 8 min reading time. doi.org/10.59350/0ae...

    Closing my tabs, July 10, 2026

  26. Qld business fined $1,200 after sparking million-dollar fire ant scare
    By Liam O'Connell

    The unnamed business shipped a pallet of second-hand bricks infested with fire ants to mine sites in the Bowen Basin in mid-2025, sparking four rounds of aerial baiting at a cost of $1 million.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-08/fir

    #Biosecurity #Pests #PestsDiseasesandControlMethods #LiamOConnell

  27. Qld business fined $1,200 after sparking million-dollar fire ant scare
    By Liam O'Connell

    The unnamed business shipped a pallet of second-hand bricks infested with fire ants to mine sites in the Bowen Basin in mid-2025, sparking four rounds of aerial baiting at a cost of $1 million.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-08/fir

    #Biosecurity #Pests #PestsDiseasesandControlMethods #LiamOConnell

  28. SA confirms second H5 bird flu case, two more suspected in Perth and WA

    South Australia confirms its second H5 bird flu case while Western Australia investigates two more suspected detections, as authorities say the virus has not spread beyond isolated wild birds.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-08/sec

    #AvianInfluenza #PublicHealth #EnvironmentalHealth #Biosecurity #PoultryFarming #Animals

  29. SA confirms second H5 bird flu case, two more suspected in Perth and WA

    South Australia confirms its second H5 bird flu case while Western Australia investigates two more suspected detections, as authorities say the virus has not spread beyond isolated wild birds.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-08/sec

    #AvianInfluenza #PublicHealth #EnvironmentalHealth #Biosecurity #PoultryFarming #Animals

  30. Second case of H5 bird flu detected on South Australian coast

    South Australia has recorded its second confirmed detection of H5 bird flu, in a giant petrel found on the state's Yorke Peninsula.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-08/sec

    #AvianInfluenza #PublicHealth #EnvironmentalHealth #Biosecurity #PoultryFarming #Animals

  31. Second case of H5 bird flu detected on South Australian coast

    South Australia has recorded its second confirmed detection of H5 bird flu, in a giant petrel found on the state's Yorke Peninsula.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-08/sec

    #AvianInfluenza #PublicHealth #EnvironmentalHealth #Biosecurity #PoultryFarming #Animals

  32. Qld business fined $1,200 after sparking million-dollar fire ant scare
    By Liam O'Connell

    The unnamed business shipped a pallet of second-hand bricks infested with fire ants to mine sites in the Bowen Basin in mid-2025, sparking four rounds of aerial baiting at a cost of $1 million.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-08/fir

    #Biosecurity #Pests #PestsDiseasesandControlMethods #LiamOConnell

  33. Qld business fined $1,200 after sparking million-dollar fire ant scare
    By Liam O'Connell

    The unnamed business shipped a pallet of second-hand bricks infested with fire ants to mine sites in the Bowen Basin in mid-2025, sparking four rounds of aerial baiting at a cost of $1 million.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-08/fir

    #Biosecurity #Pests #PestsDiseasesandControlMethods #LiamOConnell

  34. Suspected bird flu case detected in SA but yet to be confirmed as H5
    By Daniel Keane

    A suspected H5 bird flu case is detected in a giant petrel on SA's Yorke Peninsula, but the state government says the viral load is low with further results expected within the next 48 hours.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-07/bir

    #AvianInfluenza #Biosecurity #Birds #EnvironmentalManagement #PoultryFarming #DanielKeane

  35. Suspected bird flu case detected in SA but yet to be confirmed as H5
    By Daniel Keane

    A suspected H5 bird flu case is detected in a giant petrel on SA's Yorke Peninsula, but the state government says the viral load is low with further results expected within the next 48 hours.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-07-07/bir

    #AvianInfluenza #Biosecurity #Birds #EnvironmentalManagement #PoultryFarming #DanielKeane

  36. 🧬🤖 Mit den Chancen von KI und Biotechnologie wachsen auch die Anforderungen an Sicherheit und Regulierung.
    Erhöht KIxBio Sicherheitsrisiken? Und wie lassen sich mögliche Risiken begrenzen, ohne Innovationen unnötig einzuschränken?
    Diese Fragen diskutieren wir am 8. Juli in einem öffentlichen Fachgespräch des Deutschen Bundestages.

    👉 tab-beim-bundestag.de/KIxBio-s

    #Technikfolgenabschätzung #KI #Biotechnologie #Biosecurity #Bundestag

  37. 🧬🤖 Mit den Chancen von KI und Biotechnologie wachsen auch die Anforderungen an Sicherheit und Regulierung.
    Erhöht KIxBio Sicherheitsrisiken? Und wie lassen sich mögliche Risiken begrenzen, ohne Innovationen unnötig einzuschränken?
    Diese Fragen diskutieren wir am 8. Juli in einem öffentlichen Fachgespräch des Deutschen Bundestages.

    👉 tab-beim-bundestag.de/KIxBio-s

    #Technikfolgenabschätzung #KI #Biotechnologie #Biosecurity #Bundestag

  38. 🧬🤖 Biotechnologie und KI eröffnen neue Möglichkeiten – bringen aber auch neue Sicherheitsfragen mit sich.

    Das TAB hat hierzu eine Technikfolgenanalyse für den Bundestag durchgeführt und vorgelegt.
    Im Fachgespräch am 8. Juli geht es u. a. um:
    – Erhöht KIxBio die Sicherheitsrisiken?
    – Wie lassen sich mögliche Risiken begrenzen, ohne Innovation zu behindern?
    📍 Deutscher Bundestag & online
    👉 Infos:
    tab-beim-bundestag.de/KIxBio-s

    #Biosecurity #KI #technikfolgenabschatzung

  39. Black swan 'wipe-out' predicted as dead birds reported along WA coast

    More than a dozen dead birds that washed up on southern WA beaches are reported to authorities amid concerns an outbreak of avian influenza is spreading.

    abc.net.au/news/2026-06-22/bla

    #AvianInfluenza #Biosecurity #EnvironmentalManagement #PoultryFarming #Animals #VeterinaryMedicine

  40. From poultry flu to wild bird flu - H5N1

    * "Every outbreak of bird flu in Australian from 1976 to 2024 has arisen on a large, commercial poultry farm."
    poultry-research.sydney.edu.au

    * A suspected bird flu case was detected on mainland Australia

    "Australia had been the last continent free of this deadly strain of bird flu."

    "Infection usually happens after close contact with infected poultry — for example, chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese – or contaminated environments."

    "In the US, for example, since the arrival of this virus they've had to cull and destroy over 200 million chickens."

    "In February 2025 the H7N8 strain was detected at multiple poultry farms in Victoria's north-east." >>
    abc.net.au/news/2026-06-20/sus

    #birds #BirdFlu #H5N1 #CommercialFarming #BigPoultryFarms #HighStockingDensities #pathogens #biosecurity #food #chicken #poultry #meat #livestock #pets #vectors #NativeBirds #WildBirds #wildlife #biodiversity
    Image: Bird/ snake mosaic, Sawtell

  41. It looks like the worst has finally happened. The deadly strain of H1N5 bird flu has arrived in Australasia, with a migratory brown skua in Western Australia testing positive (it’s since died). If this bird flu establishes in Australia, it is expected to then make the jump across the Tasman to NZ.

    This is the bird flu strain that has caused mass die-offs of many bird and marine mammal species as it’s spread across the world.

    The second link below is the fact sheet from NZ Ministry for Primary Industries on what we should be doing. The first step is to be vigilant and keep a look out for sick and dead birds and seals. In preparation for the arrival of H5N1, the Department of Conservation has been immunising some of our most threatened birds, like kakapō.

    theguardian.com/australia-news

    mpi.govt.nz/biosecurity-in-nz/

    #BirdFlu #H5N1 #Australia #NZ #biosecurity

  42. Cal Newport on doom trolling, SecureBio's benchmark dashboard, RAND on biodesign audit trails, the anti-scaling law in drug development, local models growing up, and minibwa retiring bwa-mem blog.stephenturner.us/p/six-things... 🧬💻🧪 #biosecurity #AIxBio

    Six Things: June 18, 2026

  43. e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-an :
    '#Aotearoa is facing its sharpest constitutional crisis in modern history, as the government professes adherence to Te Tiriti abroad while dismantling it at home, writes international legal practitioner Nicola #Hoobin.'

    'In signing the landmark New Zealand-#India Free #Trade Agreement in April this year, the current #coalition #government exported the #Treaty yet again, embedding a dedicated “Cultural, Traditional Knowledge and Economic Cooperation Chapter” that requires all actions to be executed in a “manner consistent with the Treaty of #Waitangi”.
    '.....the contradiction it presents to domestic strategy creates a fatal blind spot.
    'In New Zealand public law, courts frequently look to international treaties signed by the executive as extrinsic evidence to interpret the scope of the Crown’s fiduciary obligations.
    'So, for example, if #iwi launch #judicial #reviews against the rollbacks of the 19 targeted #statutes — which cover critical resource management, #biosecurity, and primary #industries — the #FTA texts become powerful legal levers.
    'The Crown cannot easily look a High Court judge in the eye and argue that statutory Treaty obligations are vague, unworkable, or a threat to democratic certainty when the executive branch has formally executed international documents telling the UK and EU the exact opposite.
    'The explicit acknowledgments in the EU and UK agreements effectively block the Crown from downplaying the constitutional status of Te Tiriti in a domestic courtroom.
    'This inescapable double standard shifts the ultimate burden of accountability from global panels directly onto our domestic judiciary.
    'Will the New Zealand courts now hold the Crown strictly accountable for its own #international admissions, enforcing the principle that a sovereign government can’t legally define Te Tiriti as a cornerstone of our constitution to the rest of the world while treating it as entirely disposable at home?...'