The purpose of the travel was to attend the 12th International Verticillium Symposium held in Ljubljana, Slovenia where presentions were made by two Australian researchers on the update on the defoliating strain of Verticillium dahliae VCG1A in Australia to an international audience of 88 participants from 22 countries.

Verticillium wilt is one of the most important pathogens many cotton growers are facing at this time. Two highly virulent strains of Verticillium dahliae are widespread and current management strategies such as crop rotation (cotton/wheat/long fallow/cotton rotations) are not effective and host resistance is temperature sensitive and therefore fails to manage this pathogen effectively. A better understanding of pathogen/host interaction, soil population and disease development, and practical strategies to manage this disease are needed. International collaborators, Prof. Jiménez-Díaz, and Prof. Subbarao are key note speakers at this symposium and attendance will enable professional relationships to be further developed, as well as developing new relationships with researchers who are developing management strategies for Verticillium wilt.

The closing session finished at 2.30pm with the news the next Symposium will be held in Wuhan, China in 2019.