AU: Partnership to boost citrus exotic pest surveillance

The Australian citrus industry has joined forces with officers from the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning (DELWP) to check citrus trees in Sunraysia for the presence of key biosecurity threats. It’s the first time that the citrus industry and government have worked together in this way to boost protection against serious exotic diseases that could devastate the industry.

Stuart Pettigrew, Biosecurity Manager for Citrus Australia said that combining the resources of industry and government provides the best chance of protecting our citrus orchards from exotic diseases.

“Industry is supplying the traps for the surveillance program along with some technical and logistical support, and DELWP is providing the personnel for the work,”
Mr Pettigrew said. “It might seem strange to be checking for diseases we don’t have in Australia, but if a serious pest such as the Asian citrus psyllid and the devastating disease it carries, Huanglongbing (HLB) was to make it through
border security, early detection would be vital. The area would immediately be quarantined so that we couldcontain the pest and if we were fast enough to find it, we would try to eradicate it from Australia.”

Mr Pettigrew and the DELWP officers will be placing traps in Sunraysia for 4 weeks, setting traps in nurseries and orchards, as well as urban areas. “We’re not expecting to find any Asian citrus psyllids, but a nil finding is in itself very useful. It gives us
‘evidence of absence’ which is becoming increasingly important to our overseas markets. It shows we’ve been checking for it,” Mr Pettigrew said.

The surveillance work in each area will be combined with training of key personnel,
meeting with local government representatives and farm biosecurity activities, including developing farm biosecurity plans with local growers.

For further information:
Stuart Pettigrew
Citrus Australia
Tel: +61 0429 936 812.
Email: media@phau.com.au