"Australia: "Cucumber virus eradication will cost millions"
Despite already stringent biosecurity controls, cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV) has been confirmed in cucumbers at four of his greenhouses, all on separate sites.
"The fact that it's spread over all our farms simultaneously points very clearly that it is the seeds that have caused the problem and obviously I'm a bit disillusioned at the testing regimes that have been put in place," he said.
"We can eradicate everything on this farm but if infected seeds are coming in to the Bundaberg district ... what hope have we all got of eradicating it?"
He said growers needed to adapt to the presence of the virus, which appeared to be spreading across the country.
"It is all over Western Australia, it's in the Northern Territory, it's already been identified in Queensland in two places," he said.
"I think that there's a high suspicion that it's been around a lot more than has been reported."
"I admire people that have had the guts to report it and I can understand why they don't do it."
He said the discovery of the virus had already cost him "hundreds of thousands" in lost production, but the program to eradicate it would probably run into the millions.
Read more at ABC Rural
