A SUSPECTED case of a virus that could decimate the Northern Territory’s $50 million watermelon industry has been detected on a commercial farm south of Katherine.
The virus, cucumber green mottle mosaic virus, has the potential to have major impacts on watermelon yields and fruit quality, and can also affect other crops, including cucumber and squash.
Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries Biosecurity and Product Integrity Group director Dr Andrew Tomkins said every watermelon farm in the NT was being examined to determine how widespread the problem was.
“What we’re trying to do at the moment is to find out how widespread it is,” Dr Tomkins said.
“We’re trying to survey all the melon farms in the NT, which span from Darwin to about Ti Tree.
“We can only go by reports but there are about five to seven strains of the virus, so different strains can affect different hosts.
“We’ve got to clarify which strain we’ve got.”
According to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, the NT is the country’s second-largest producer of watermelons, behind Queensland.
Dr Tomkins said that, if CGMMV was confirmed and the virus spread across the NT, it could put a big dent in production.
“The long and the short of it is that it can have quite a significant impact on yield,” he said.
“You end up with a fruit that breaks down inside, in the case of watermelons, so the two problems are that the yield is down and the fruit is not much good.”
The virus can appear as mosaic-like mottling on leaves, with symptoms including rotting, yellowing or dirty red discolouring of the internal fruit.
Similar mosaic viruses caused by potyviruses are known to occur in northern Australia.
CGMMV can be transmitted via pollen, infected seed, machinery and - according to some reports - water.
While all melon producers in the NT have been notified about the suspected detection, Dr Tomkins said anyone coming into contact with crops needed to be “really careful”.
“The big thing for people is that, if they’re going near a melon farm, it can be very easily spread mechanically,” he said.
NT Farmers chief executive officer Grant Fenton said he believed the suspected detection would have many melon growers “a bit toey”.
“The key thing for us is that, if you look at the examples of this disease in China, there’s been a 40 to 50 per cent loss of production when it’s occurred,” he said.
“Melons are worth $50m a year to the industry, second behind mangoes.
“It’s a game changer to the industry.”
