Our Business

Pestat engages in two areas of business operation

• provision of management services for bioscience-related activities, and
• development & delivery of technologies that help address pest animal issues.

Bioscience management

Pestat has current engagements with Australia’s

• Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry (DAFF) to provide services for
  • Secretariat management functions for the Vertebrate Pests Committee.
  • The Vertebrate Pests Committee (VPC) provides coordinated policy and planning solutions for pest animal issues in Australia. Its members are the Australian Commonwealth, state and territory governments. The VPC is a sectoral committee that serves the National Biosecurity Committee.
  • National Coordinator for the Australian Pest Animal Strategy.
  • The Australian Pest Animal Strategy was developed by the Vertebrate Pests Committee, and provides a framework plan that is endorsed by all Australian governments. It establishes how the governments will work with each other, and with business, industry and the community to manage the issues and problems associated with vertebrate pest animals in Australia.
• Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) to provide coordination and other services for the R&D projects
  • ‘Value-adding to Honey’
  • Honey is a complex food with valuable properties that extend beyond its traditional use as a natural sweetener. This project will progress the accreditation of selected Australian honeys for use as low-GI and pre-biotic foods, and support their continued development as therapeutic agents.
• ‘Delivering a Competitive Honeybee and Pollination CRC bid’
• The Commonwealth Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) Program provides a potential means to support the R&D and education and training needs of the Australian honeybee and pollination-dependent industries. It also requires significant commitments by Centre participants. This project will investigate the feasibility of establishing a CRC to serve these industries, and if deemed appropriate, prepare an application for its establishment and operation.

Technology development & delivery

Introduced animals such as foxes, cane toads, camels and starlings are widely distributed on the Australian continent, and cause significant environmental, financial and social problems. Pestat assists the national effort to reduce the impact of animal pests by supporting development and delivery of humane and effective technologies to aid in their management.

Pestat’s current activities relate to management of foxes and cane toads.

• Foxes. In collaboration with the NSW Dept of Environment, Climate Change and Water, and the University of Western Sydney, Pestat is working on an APAMP-supported project to test a new combination of delivery technology and toxicant formulation for fox management.
• Cane toads. Pestat has developed a spray product (HopStop®) for humane lethal control of cane toads in the domestic (‘backyard’) environment, and is waiting for government approval to supply it for use.
• Pestat is also testing materials with potential to be used to control large numbers of small toads (metamorphs and toadlets) in landscape-scale settings.

Pestat has previously developed and delivered other innovative tools and strategies to assist with management of foxes, wild dogs and Australian white ibis.

• Foxes & wild dogs. FeralMone® is a non-lethal aerosol spray which is an effective chemical attractant for wild dogs and foxes.
• In collaboration with NSW Department of Environment and Conservation, Pestat tested various canid lure mixtures for their attractiveness. Pestat subsequently developed FeralMone® from the most active attractant, and released it to the market in 2005. FeralMone® is distributed in Australia by Animal Control Technologies (Australia) Pty Ltd (ACTA).
• Australian white ibis. This native species has become a problem in various urban areas where very large numbers of birds pose human health and nuisance problems and potential aviation safety risks. Research was undertaken by Pestat in collaboration with the NSW Centennial Park to find a humane method to control their excessive numbers in parks in central Sydney. A method involving non-destructive coating of eggs in nests with cooking oil was shown to have potential to be 100% effective in reducing breeding success of the colonies.

A wild dog about to cross a sandplot monitoring station, Namadgi National Park, ACT. Wild dogs are often hybrids of domestic dogs and wild dingoes. Photo courtesy Mr Rob Hunt (NSW DECCW).

Australian white ibis have become a nuisance problem in some urban centres in Australia.

The cane toad is one of the most poisonous amphibians in the world. The glands at the toad's 'shoulders' store large amounts of the material that constitutes the toxic 'venom’.

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