New Vinehealth Australia Board member Fiona Constable brings a wealth of pest and disease expertise to the organisation, particularly grapevine virus knowledge.
As Research Leader for Microbiology, in the Microbial Sciences, Pests and Diseases group at Agriculture Victoria, Fiona works across plants and animals, exotic and endemic pests and diagnostics.
“We also respond to emergency disease outbreaks, such as the 2020 and 2024 avian influenza outbreaks in Victoria, so we’re a very busy team,” Fiona said.
Fiona began working in plant virology in horticultural crops in 1989 as a technician with the Burnley Plant Research Institute, part of Agriculture Victoria. “In 1995, I ended up in a research scientist position and I started working on Australian grapevine yellows disease, and that sparked my interest in diseases of grapevines,” Fiona said.
A career highlight was working with Charles Drew at Scholefield Robinson Horticultural Services in 2004 on the development of ‘vine health parameters’ for the nursery and vine improvement sector, to encourage the production of high health planting material.
“We felt there was a real need to get a better understanding of what viruses were out there and their risks and control measures, to improve the provision of high health planting material to industry,” Fiona said.
A recent highlight was the formation of the Australian Grapevine Virology Technical Committee in 2023. This committee brings together scientists from grapevine virology diagnostic and research laboratories across Australia with representatives from industry.
“Members of the committee are working together to increase cohesion between virus testing laboratories,” Fiona said.
“An outcome from this collaboration has been the establishment of a virus diagnostic proficiency testing program between the three main diagnostic laboratories, which was co-led by Agriculture Victoria and Affinity Labs at the AWRI.
“The overarching aim of this committee is to facilitate communication between grapevine virology laboratories and industry and work towards harmonisation of grapevine diagnostic testing in Australia.”
Fiona has a deep understanding of grapevine viruses and was a lead researcher on grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV) projects, including a comprehensive review of the virus, a nursery industry extension project, and defining sampling and testing protocols for GPGV in Australia. Fiona has also co-authored Wine Australia’s suite of virus fact sheets on grapevine viruses and represents Australia on the international virus stage.
Fiona also works with Wine Victoria’s Technical Committee and recently completed a snapshot of viruses across Victorian vineyards. “We took samples from Chardonnay and Shiraz grapevines around the state and analysed them, using high-throughput sequencing, which is state-of-the-art tech for understanding what pests and diseases are present,” she said.
“We then ran workshops with industry to share the data, which provided an interesting picture of the virus diversity in Victorian vineyards and how this is impacting yield and quality.”
Fiona applied to join the Vinehealth Australia Board to share her knowledge of biosecurity and research skills and contribute to projects that will assist with pest and disease management in Australian vineyards.
As part of her role at Agriculture Victoria, Fiona also supervises PhD students and two of her students have recently completed their studies focused on Shiraz Disease and new and emerging grapevine viruses in Australia, including Grapevine red blotch virus.
Read about the work of Fiona’s PhD students here:
Read more about Fiona’s work here
Read more about recent grapevine virology work at the links below:
- A Metagenomic Investigation of the Viruses Associated with Shiraz Disease in Australia
- Virus Pathogens in Australian Vineyards with an Emphasis on Shiraz Disease
- A Chronological Study on Grapevine Leafroll-Associated Virus 2 in Australia
- Genetic Diversity of Grapevine Virus A in Three Australian Vineyards Using Amplicon High Throughput Sequencing (Amplicon-HTS)
- First Report of Grapevine Rupestris Vein Feathering Virus in Grapevine in Australia
- Grapevine virus updates on prevention and latest innovation
- GRBV update for SA vineyard owners
- Scholarship helping to improve management of GPGV
