One of Australia's leading plant pathologists says it is vital that appropriate action is taken when there are discoveries of plant disease. Professor Andre Drenth told the Australian Banana Industry Congress in Sydney that, while it sounds simple enough, he has seen examples where people do nothing, and the problem rapidly spreads.
"Everyone has the diagnostics, but it is what you do with the information that counts," Mr Drenth said. "One example is - I was standing on a hill in China and I could see some plants with (Panama disease) Tropical Race 4 (TR4). They had done diagnosis, they used some molecular tools, they said we have TR4. I said 'what are you going to do next?' Nothing. They knew they had TR4 but were not following it up with any sort of action."
The plant Protection Program (PPP) aims to put all research for plant health under one roof; from varieties, quarantine, clean planting, diagnostics, field disease issues, insect weevil bore issues, but most importantly communication and scientific links. While there is a lot of attention on TR4 these days, he urges the industry to continue to look for race 1.
Professor Drenth recognised that if a grower had race 1 in Lady Finger cultivar, they could switch to Cavendish. But there was nothing to move to from Cavendish. So he calculated the cost of doing nothing once the TR4 was discovered.
"We have lots of data from China and the Philippines and other parts of the world," he said. "That would be $138 million which is 25 per cent of the industry worth of cost that would be added."
He says the situation is different in Australia. With the country only producing one banana for every 500 worldwide, it is all about containment, and that is somewhat easier, given that it is an island nation. But Professor Drenth then had to look at destruction protocols of Fusarium (the pathogen that causes Panama disease) as a way of limiting the spread.
"I had this trial where we put down a lot of plants and we did some trials by injecting them with chemicals," he said. "We can kill the plant - that is not the problem. But we want to kill inside the Fusarium. That's the problem, it doesn't work. You can inject whatever you want into the plant, it does not kill the Fusarium. So we need to focus on how to stop the spread and this is important to growers as we don't have an alternative to Cavendish yet, so we want to slow down and halt it as best we can. We are still in the exclusion and containment section and would like to stay in it."
Professor Drenth stressed the importance of preparation with travel between international destinations just a plane ride away. He said research between different countries was important so that the industry is prepared and has the diagnostics and controls to deal with it when it pops up. A new program started more than five years ago, a new section for quarantine to screen race 1 and nematodes, before it gets to the country. He noted pests and diseases could reach Cape York from Papua New Guinea in traded palm trees, if care was not taken.
"What do we want?" he asked. "We want fruit that is palatable that the consumer likes. We may need to do a bit of consumer education. We need fruit the grower can grow and which can be transported, and is disease resistant."
The PPP has also worked on the diagnosis, control, monitoring and eradication of other diseases such as banana freckle, as well as black and yellow Sigatoka.
"We have a good record in Australia of getting stuff in, but also declaring it eradicated after spending a lot of money because this is never easy," Professor Drenth said.