Program Overview

Strategies and Expectations

Key strategies for 2010-11   

• Enhance production systems to maintain the competitiveness of Australian growers through research focused on:
  • continuation of the breeding program to develop high-yielding, commercial varieties
  • evaluate the carbon pools within commercial tea tree crops and the capacity of cultural practices to sequester carbon in the soil
• Identify regulatory regimes and market barriers, and enhance the ability of industry to meet safety standards through research:
  • to investigate the microbial adaptation and tolerance to tea tree oil
• Demonstrate proof of concept/efficacy for innovative applications of tea tree oil through research on the:
  • use of tea tree oil formulations for the treatment of lice and fly strike in sheep
  • use of tea tree oil as a preventative and therapeutic anti-cancer agent
  • examination and characterisation of the ways in which tea tree oil may be interfering with the adhesion of microorganisms to different surfaces
  • use of tea tree oil products to prevent staphylococcal infections in dialysis patients
  • use of tea tree oil hand wash products to remove bacterial spores from hands
  • determine the effects of tea tree oil on microbial adhesion
• Foster communication that increases understanding and thereby greater use of tea tree oil through research focused on the:
  • development and implementation of a coordinated communications strategy for the tea tree industry
  • compilation and publication of purpose driven research dossiers
  • development of training packages for the industry Code of Practice.

Expected key outputs for 2010-11

• A report demonstrating the efficacy of tea tree oil in controlling buffalo fly on cattle
• A series of gene-based diagnostic tools that will allow the selection of high yielding and appropriate chemotypes

Expected key outcomes for 2010-11

New data, which show that prolonged exposure of bacteria to a low concentration of tea tree oil, does not result in changes in antibiotic susceptibility that would lead to treatment failure. This will have a positive influence on the market for tea tree oil through data, which contrast with and provide a counterbalance to those already available.