The Southern African Society of Plant Pathologists held their annual congress at Magalies Park Country Club from 22-25 January 2006.  As always, the congress was a fabulous success and everyone had an opportunity to reconnect with old colleagues and friends.

The congress kicked off with a very successful golf day at the Magalies Park Country Club, located on the banks of the Hartbeespoort Dam in the Northwest Province.  Forty golfers in total played the 18 holes sponsored by several companies and institutions.  Registration for the conference kicked off at 15h00 the afternoon with 120 delegates registering for the conference This was followed by a dinner in the lapa.

Monday morning saw the opening of the congress by Dr. Deidre Fourie (Chair: Organising committee).  The opening address was delivered by Prof. Alex McDonald (Programme Manager, Crop protection, ARC-Institute for Grain Crops).  The topics of the different sessions varied and ranged from traditional taxonomy to applied plant pathology.  This year we were fortunate to have a number of international scientists attending the conference. 

Dr Tom Gulya of the Sunflower Research Unit, USDA-ARS shared his knowledge and experience of Sclerotinia disease on sunflowers.   The Ethel Doidge Memorial address was presented by Dr. Jan Rademaker of NIZO Food Research in the Netherlands.  His talk on the taxonomic development in the bacterial genus Xanthomonas was the first of an increasing number of bacterial talks for this conference.  

Dr. Gerhard Pietersen of the University of Pretoria delivered the Vanderplank Memorial address.   A technical session was introduced to the progamme this year.  The session was introduced by Dr. Desiree Cole as the keynote speaker.  She is currently serving as the editor of Crop Protection and shared with us the current trends in Plant Pathology.  This was followed by a series of talks by representatives of a number of industries in Plant Pathology.  Dr. Gary Kong (Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, Australia) and Dr. Robin Buruchara were the other international keynote speakers.  Click here to view the progamme and abstract book.






From left to right: Tom Gulya, Gerhard Pietersen,
Gary Kong, Jan Radermaker, Robin Buruchara and
Desiree Cole.












Socially, the congress was as successful as ever.  Unfortunately, rain forced us to cancel the traditional Mildenhall stakes.  However, a few of the more determined society members held an impromptu competition around midnight when the rain stopped.  The traditional congress dinner had a Portuguese theme and everybody had a great time.  
 












During the prizegiving ceremony several prizes and awards were handed out by Prof. Sakkie Pretorius (President of the SASPP).  Dr. Sandra Lambrecht of the ARC-PPRI received the Applied Plant Pathology award, while Prof. Wally Marasas received the publicity award.  Sanushka Naidoo of the University of Pretoria received a cash prize for the best student paper in bacteriology. This year the quality of student papers and posters was very high and the judges had a tough time deciding on a winner.  The winner of the best student paper delivered at the congress was Jennifer Moldenhauer from the University of the Free State with her talk on stripe rust in wheat.  The prize for the best poster was awarded to Chris Spies of the University of Stellenbosch for his poster on Pythium species associated with grapevine decline.  Several students received young plant pathology awards to cover their expenses towards the congress.














Prof. Wally Marasas (Publicity award) and Prof. Sakkie Pretorius





















Prof. Sakkie Pretorius, Dr. Rikus Kloppers, Jennifer Moldenhauer and Chris Spies with the PANNAR award for best paper and poster, respectively.




Student winners of the young plant pathology awards with Prof. Sakkie Pretorius.




Prof. Sakkie Pretorius shared with us his vision and concerns about biosafety.  A new committee was also elected to serve the next term.  They are Dr. Karin Jacobs (President, Stellenbosch University), Dr. Alan Wood (Vice-president, ARC-PPRI), Dr. Adele McLeod (Secretary, University of Stellenbosch) and Dr. Francois Halleen (Treasurer, ARC- Infruitec-Nietvoorbij).  
 
More conference pictures will soon be available in the member pages.

The 2007 conference will be held at the Kopanong Hotel and Conference Centre near Johannesburg.