MORE than 200 banana plants on a Tully Valley farm were destroyed last weekend in an effort to contain the devastating fungus Panama Tropical Race 4 disease.
Field officers from the Australian Banana Growers’ Council (ABGC) destroyed 210 plants on a 10 hectare section of the farm including 10 plants which had tested positive for TR4.
Biosecurity Queensland issued an order to the farmer last Friday evening to have the plants destroyed after tests confirmed the strain of TR4 detected on the banana farm was the same as the strain previously found in the Northern Territory and in many other parts of the world.
The owner immediately accepted an ABGC offer to carry out the destruction on his behalf.
ABGC chairman Doug Phillips thanked the grower from the affected farm for his continuing assistance with the response to the TR4 confirmation.
“The destruction of the TR4-affected banana plants and the surrounding plants is important step in containing this plant disease,” Mr Phillips said.
Biosecurity Queensland reported that test results completed on plant samples have so far shown no TR4 has been found on other North Queensland properties.
“It’s very encouraging that there have been no detections of TR4 on other banana farms,” Mr Phillips said.
“Surveillance and testing is continuing and we would ask all growers to continue to report any plants that may appear to have TR4 symptoms.”
Chief biosecurity officer Dr Jim Thompson said a biological (VCG) test had confirmed the findings of earlier molecular (PCR) testing and also that it was not something new.
He said there was no evidence to suggest it came across the western border.
“There is nothing to indicate at this stage that the disease on the quarantined property near Tully came from the Northern Territory,” Dr Thompson said.
“We have also received more PCR test results from new samples taken from the quarantined property, and other properties, which have all come back negative. It is still very early days in the response and there are many more rounds of testing to be done.
"We will continue to take samples from the quarantined property and any other identified high risk properties. This involves checking hundreds of hectares of bananas and will continue over the coming weeks and months.
“The ongoing process of testing samples from various sites on the quarantined property and other properties helps to build a clearer picture of what we are dealing with and the extent of the outbreak.
Biosecurity Queensland is bringing more staff into the response and ramping up surveillance efforts on farms, tracing movements of plant material, equipment and other potential means of transmission, while also doing further diagnostic testing.
