A look back at outbreaks in Australian agriculture
With the recent discovery of the Tomato potato psyllid many farmers are troubled as estimates show that, if the pest brings the zebra chip disease with it, the industry could suffer $45 million in damages. However, the new pest is far from the first outbreak to cause panic.
Chestnut blight
Chestnut blight was first detected near Eurobin in the Ovens Valley in Victoria's north-east in September 2010. The pest was discovered again on a number of other properties in the Valley in 2014. It is a bark-inhabiting fungus that has already spread through North America, North Asia and Europe. It is new to Australia and has significantly affected the Victorian chestnut industry, worth $8 million annually, according to Agriculture Victoria.
Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus
Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus was detected on watermelon farms in Katherine and Darwin in the Northern Territory in September 2014. Quarantine measures were put in place but another incursion was found on a single property at Charters Towers in April 2015.
In February 2016, the NT revoked the quarantine but the disease was again found last year in Western Australia, in the Kimberley, Perth, Geraldton and Carnarvon. It is transmitted via contaminated machinery, equipment and infected seed stock.
Banana Panama disease tropical race 4 (TR4)
The $400 million banana industry was devastated after the discovery of Panama TR4 on a property at Tully, in far north Queensland in March 2015.
Previously, the soil-borne pathogen had wiped out the banana industry in the Northern Territory in the 1990s. It spreads via contaminated soil and plants and cannot be eradicated. The infected Tully property has since been purchased by industry and will never be farmed again.
The emergency and ongoing response has cost the Queensland Government $22 million, with significant investment also coming from the Federal Government and growers.
Plant Biosecurity CRC estimates the cost of eradicating banana freckle and Panama TR4 at currently $26 million.
source: abc.net.au
