Summary

The first phase biological control of cane toads in Australia began around the early 1980s. Funding was provided by the Commonwealth Government through Council of Native Conservation Ministers (CONCOM) in 1987. At that stage little was known about the diseases of cane toads. Funding was provided to James Cook University at the School of Tropical Veterinary Science to look at cane toad diseases in Australia. The aim was to discover any diseases that could be used for biological control. The initial objectives were to identify some agents and some very basic pathology of cane toads resulting in the type of the diseases that were present in the Australian population of cane toads. The end result of that project, (from 1987 to 1989), was the identification of a number of pathogens, but none of them appeared to be particularly useful as a control agent.

This archive contains an unpublished report on the CONCOM funded Cane Toad Project at James Cook University 1986 to 1990 (edited by Professor Emeritus Rick Speare).