Boston: home of the Red Sox, Harvard University and – for a few days this year – the world’s brightest plant pathologists.

The International Congress of Plant Pathology (ICPP) was held in the American city from July 29 to August 3, focussing on Plant Health in a Global Economy.

Among the attendees was Dr Rosie Godwin, Research and Development Manager at the Australian Banana Growers’ Council.

Dr Godwin presented at a satellite meeting on Fusarium, sharing the Australian banana industry’s experience of Panama tropical race 4.

“Learning about the Australian experience may assist countries not yet affected by TR4 in their preparedness, while I hope countries dealing with TR4 benefited from hearing how Australia implemented containment and management strategies that have effectively slowed the spread of the disease,” Ms Godwin said.

She was also able to attend numerous ICPP sessions on topics ranging from banana blood disease through to new genetic technologies to create resistant plants and the use of aerial imagery to control diseases.

“The Congress is only held every 5 years and brings together the best plant pathologists from all over the world.

It was a great opportunity to catch up on all the latest scientific developments being used to solve diseases issues on all our major crops,” Ms Godwin said.

“The science presented was high quality and the range of topics both in the talks and posters on offer was extensive.”