Providing Australian cotton protection from biotic threats and environmental stresses requires informed surveillance and management. One such threat is the fungal disease, Verticillium wilt, caused by the pathogen Verticillium dahliae. Verticillium wilt remains a severe disease in Australian cotton, with more virulent strains causing significant yield losses (Chapman et al. 2016). This disease would be better managed if potential pathways for transmission of Verticillium could be identified. Overseas publications report other species of Verticillium that can be transmitted by insects (Kalb et al. 1986, Huang & Harper 1985, Price 1975). The aim of this study was to identify if any insects could digest and then transmit V. dahliae.

A pilot study (to optimise the methodology required) and four experiments (Experiment 1, 2 and 3 exposing insects to a pure fungal culture of V. dahliae, and Experiment 4 exposing insects to the diseased cotton plant tissue (leaves with symptoms of Verticillium wilt)) were undertaken to assess if insects found on or in the soil around the cotton plant could transmit V. dahliae. Results showed that the pathogen was transferred externally on the insects: Corticaria subtilissima (minute brown scavenger beetle), Anthicus australis (ant- like beetle), Elateridae (wireworm), Dicranolaius bellulus (red and blue beetle) and Creontiades dilutes (green mirid). In addition, the pathogen survived the digestive tract of several insects: Dicranolaius bellulus (red and blue beetle), Iridomyrmex (small meat ant), Corticaria subtilissima (minute brown scavenger beetle), Anthicus australis (ant-like beetle) and Elateridae (wireworm). The faecal matter isolations and subsequent recovery of V. dahliae from these insects are evidence that they are capable of transmitting the V. dahliae pathogen.

The findings suggest that insects are a potential source of pathogen transmission within Australian cotton crops. While insects could spread V.dahliae, additional research is needed to establish if they can be inoculated by Verticillium wilt plants, and to fully understand the relationship between the pathogen and these potential vectors to inform the surveillance and management of this key biotic threat.

This travel scholarship funding enabled one australian researcher to attend and present posters at two international conferences, the International Mycological Congress 11 (IMC 11) and the International Congress of Plant Pathology 2018 (ICPP 2018), and to do a lab exchange in Dr Libo Shan’s lab at Texas A&M University.

This report underpins the aim of this research project, which is to provide initial objective understanding of the influence of various sleepwear and bedding on the sleep microclimates. The complex phenomenon that is human sleep has been studied widely over a number of decades, yet is still not fully understood. As humans, we spend around one third of our lives sleeping. The amount of sleep needed for optimal health in young adults and adult humans is 7–9 hours per night, reducing as we get older (Hirshkowitz et al., 2015). However, for athletes, it is suggested that additional sleep hours are needed for recovery and preparation for competition, meaning that 9–10 hours of predominantly nocturnal sleep is ideal (Bompa and Haff, 2009). However, there is a strong body of evidence that suggests few athletes achieve this optimal amount of sleep. Further, research has shown that non-athletes sleep more than athletes (Walters, 2002) and athletes commonly suffer from poor sleep quality (Samuels, 2009).

It is clear that sleep loss can negatively affect athletic performance and recovery. However, whilst the results of research on the effects of sleep loss on athletic performance vary, particularly in terms of physical output, it is clear that sleep loss reduces cognitive performance, impairs mood, heightens fatigue and decreases vigour. In addition, decision-making is impaired, task performance in speed and accuracy is reduced, and post-exercise recovery is impaired by poor sleep quality. All of these support the premise that optimal sleep patterns promote peak performance outcomes.

There has been a great amount of sleep research that has studied sleep phases, their timing and cycles, with an abundance of evidence in support of the benefits of optimal sleep. Many of these studies have focused on factors that affect sleep time and sleep quality, such as age, psychological conditions, culture and environmental factors.

For example, it is clear that skin temperatures and sweating levels during sleep can significantly affect sleep quality, such as if the skin temperature is too high or too low, or if the rate of skin temperature change is too rapid, and sweating function changes during phases. This implies that stable ambient and/or bedding microclimates would support good sleep patterns. It follows that the thermal properties of bedding, both in steady-state and also in transient ambient temperature conditions, are important for achieving quality sleep. Therefore there is a need to characterize the various sleeping systems for high-quality sleep.

However, there is a lack of research that has studied the sleeping microclimates, which are greatly influenced by the type of sleepwear and bedding that is used, and their effect on sleep quality. This gap in research knowledge of the effect of different types of sleepwear and bedding materials on the sleep microclimates needs to be filled.

Present literature review covers the fundamental elements of human sleep and provides a specific focus on the sleep of athletes. Further, it offers evidence of the benefits that sleep can have on athletic performance and recovery, and how a study on the sleeping micro environments can further develop the current body of sleep research that is seeking to improve the sleep quality of humans.

The 2019-20 year marked the second year under the CRDC Strategic RD&E Plan 2018–23. The strategic RD&E investments that CRDC made in 2019-20 under this plan are helping to continue to drive the Australian cotton industry towards a future of innovation, increased commercialisation and digital transformation.

In 2019–20, Australian cotton growers and the Australian Government co-invested $20.0 million through CRDC into cotton RD&E, across 234 projects and in collaboration with 99 research partners. The investments were made in the five key areas identified in the Strategic RD&E Plan: increasing productivity and profitability on Australian cotton farms; improving cotton farming sustainability and value chain competitiveness; building the adaptive capacity of the Australian cotton industry; strengthening partnerships and adoption; and driving RD&E impact.

In this report, we bring you an update on our progress towards our strategic goals – our investments, our innovations, and our intended impacts – two years into our Strategic RD&E Plan 2018–23.

This project built on the past decade of investment in NRM research by providing a

National NRM technical specialist who lead and assisted the industry develop and

implement annual national CottonInfo NRM campaigns, identify NRM R&D gaps

and opportunities and facilitate the capture of NRM R&D into the cotton industries

myBMP program, industry guidelines, tools and products.

Industry NRM research workshops such as the 2015 Riparian Researcher and the

2016 Responsible landscape Management forum provided important opportunities

for researchers and industry leaders to discuss NRM research outcomes and

workshop NRM R&D gaps and opportunities for CRDC investment.

The establishment of two long-term riparian vegetation condition/land management

practice monitoring sites on a cotton property in southern QLD, provides an

important longitudinal dataset on practice change as well as impacts on key riparian

condition indicators identified for the cotton industry by CRDC riparian researchers.

Through Collaboration with CottonInfo’s REO’s, regional NRM bodies and industry

groups (eg WINCOTT) an innovative initiative focusing on ‘social network of

women’ implemented across 7 cotton valleys has resulted in over 300 people with

improved knowledge of riparian BMP and the confidence to implement these

practices.

The development and release in 2016 of a Birds on Cotton Farm App, provided the

industry with an important tool for the identification, management and monitoring

of birds in cotton landscapes, with almost 200 sightings of birds across cotton

landscapes recorded to date by users.

The launch of the Cotton RiverCare program and appointment in 2016 of a National

Cotton RiverCare champion has enabled the industry to extend ‘good riparian

stewardship’ to industry and non-industry including 1200 followers on social media.

Extension of Cotton NRM R&D at CottonInfo industry meetings, forums and

national and international conferences including the International River Symposium

in Brisbane in 2016.

Over 50 CottonInfo extension tools and products on NRM BMP produced and

residing on the NRM page of CottonInfo.

The Association of Australian Cotton Scientists aims to facilitate a biennial cotton research conference that provides an opportunity for the Australia’s cotton research and extension community to come together and present research results, network and discuss ideas. The purpose of this sponsorship was for second biannual Australian Cotton Research Conference, which was held in at the University of Southern Queensland’s Toowoomba campus in September 2015 . The three day event was themed “Science Securing Cotton’s Future” and was attended by over 230 delegates from across Australia as well as attendees from the USA and India, with presentations made by 137 people across a broad range of disciplines. The event focused on the presentation and discussion of scientific concepts, methodologies and results with a specific aim of enabling networking between researchers from a broad range of organisations and disciplines. The event also served to recognise achievement by teams and individuals in science and extension within the Australian cotton industry. 

An efficient plant biosecurity system is vital for protecting Australia’s $31.8 billion plant production industries and our unique environment from exotic plant pest threats. Research, development and extension (R,D&E) are a vital part of this system. In order to improve the R,D&E underpinning the plant biosecurity system a greater understanding of the gaps and inefficiencies of the R,D&E system are critical. This report aims to provide an analysis of some of the areas for improvement and provide recommendations from the National Plant Biosecurity R,D&E Strategy Implementation Committee (the committee) in order to improve the R,D&E system sustaining Australia’s plant biosecurity system. The National Plant Biosecurity R,D&E Strategy Implementation Committee can then pass these recommendations to relevant government departments, Rural Research and Development Corporations (RDCs) and other relevant stakeholders.

This project continued the major study of waterlogging on heavy clay soils after furrow irrigation or heavy rainfall. The experiments concentrated on cotton, but some detailed work was also done on summer legumes to study detailed reasons for yield reduction during waterlogging.

Healthcare associated infections (HAIs) are common in hospitals around the world, where patients get infected for reasons entirely unrelated to the purpose of their admission. Healthcare textiles have a ubiquitous presence in the form of healthcare workers and patients’ uniforms, bed linens and curtains. Numerous clinical reports have confirmed that the contamination of healthcare textiles with HAI-causing pathogens may result in transmission of disease to healthy patients, through health-care worker’s uniform, scrubs and hospital linen.

Incorporation of antimicrobial agents into textiles is increasingly looked upon as a solution to prevent the pathogen colonization. However, if the fabric is hydrophilic then the absorption of organic fluids (in the form of a sneeze, vomit) can jeopardize the antimicrobial activity. Therefore, there is a growing interest to incorporate dual functionalities, antimicrobial property and superhydrophobicity, into healthcare textiles; as a superhydrophobic surface can repel pathogen-rich fluids encountered in a hospital environment while antimicrobial functionality destroys the attached microbes. Obtaining durable functionality of both properties seems to be an elusive proposition for the researchers in this field. Therefore, developing durable dual functional coatings on cotton fabrics is the prime objective of this work. The work investigates the incorporation of a cationic antimicrobial compound into cotton textiles. The compound has no adverse effect on human health, unlike some of the existing metal-based antimicrobial agents (e.g. nanosilver). This study also aims to achieve the superhydrophobic effect by using non-fluoro hydrophobic compounds, owing to the toxicity and persistent nature of fluorine compounds.

This work reports novel methods of immobilization of antimicrobial agent and hydrophobic compound to cotton fibres. One-Pot coating method is relevant to textile industry as it can be adopted as a pad-dry finishing technique. The method is simple, rapid and suitable for bulk-scale manufacturing. The process consists of deposition of antimicrobial agent and a hydrophobic compound through the use of cross-linker. The experimental design revealed the optimum synthesis conditions and the inter-relation between the three constituents of the coatings. The incorporation of cross-linker has fulfilled three purposes: anchoring of antimicrobial compound to cotton, inter-linking of antimicrobial compound chains in the coating and bonding of hydrophobic compound to the antimicrobial network. The fabrics possessed the durable activity of both antimicrobial property and superhydrophobicity. Such a fabric would enhance cotton’s competitive advantage over made-made fibres in a range of markets including: health care textiles, sportswear, outdoor furnishings, and hospitality and defence services.

To summarize, the development of dual functional cotton fabrics is a promising solution in the fight against the transmission of HAIs.

Uptake for CottonMap was high for the 2018/19 season

• Approximately 86% of the total planted area was mapped

• Approximately 30,856 page views for the CottonMap

Despite significant investment in spray drift mitigation by the cotton industry, cotton crops continue to be impacted by herbicide misuse. This is reflective of spray drift being an issue that needs to be addressed via a number of channels, including training and education, and that while a mapping platform is a very useful and helpful tool, reducing spray drift requires a collaborative effort across industries and via a number of different pathways.

In response to feedback from users and a change in platform ownership, a decision was made to investigate alternative options to deliver a crop mapping service that would offer the following benefits:

• Ability to map other crop types, not restricted to cotton

• Improved usability

• Cost effective

• Ability to be agile and respond to changes in technology, link with other technology platforms to increase value for users and funding bodies