Panama disease suspected on third Tully Valley farm

Initial testing of a sample taken from a banana plant on a property in the Tully Valley that displayed symptoms of the disease returned a positive result last Wednesday.

It is the third farm in the area that has been impacted by panama race four, after it was first detected in Queensland on Cavendish banana plants on a farm in the Tully Valley, in March 2015. The disease was detected on a second property in the same area last July.

Department of Agriculture and Fisheries general manager and chief plant protection officer, Mike Ashton said further testing was required before a final conclusive positive result could be determined.

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“The sample now needs to undergo further diagnostic testing for a final and conclusive result which can take up to six weeks to complete,” Mr Ashton said.

“Panama disease can survive in the soil for decades without banana plants and is easily transported in contaminated soil, water and on tools, farming machinery and vehicles.”

Australian Banana Growers Council chair Stephen Lowe said the third suspected case was in the same vicinity in the Tully Valley as the case from last July.

That outbreak was at Cameron Mackay’s property, which has been adhering to on-farm biosecurity measures to ensure no plant or soil was transferred from the property ever since.

Mr Lowe said the family involved was devastated.

“It's an atrocious time for any farmer that has their property shut down, and even though it is temporary, it's a terrible thing to have your income taken away from you,” Mr Lowe said.

”It is hard to put a figure on the potential loss, and we do expect the property will trade again… under a set of procedures to ensure plant material and soil do not leave the property.”

Mr Lowe said the fruit was not affected and could still be sent to market, but overheads would increase for the grower, with profit margins also dependent on the market.

“This will be the third property trading under such conditions and the second in the last six months, I’m not going to pretend it is easy but it's possible,” he said.

The banana industry turns over $600m for Queensland a year and is worth $1.2 to $1.3 billion to the Queensland economy.

Mr Lowe said while growing areas had diversified in the last decade to include Lakeland and the Atherton Tablelands, 70 per cent of Australia’s bananas were still produced in the Wet Tropics arears surrounding Tully and Innisfail.

Mr Lowe said slowing the movement of the disease was a priority.

“At this stage the idea is to protect the industry as long as we can, the slower the movement of this disease the better, giving more time for breeding programs to find plants more tolerant to this disease,” he said.

Mr Lowe said the entire industry was wiped out in places in Asia with 12-18 months of it taking hold.

He urged farmers to maintain best practice biosecurity measures and for members of the public to adhere to signs restricting access to properties.

Cassowary Coast Mayor John Kremastos said while the community was concerned about the suspected case, no-one was panicking.

“At the moment it’s business as usual, being the third suspected detection we’re waiting for all the information to come back,” Cr Kremastos said.

”Although we are very concerned, we are not panicking over it, we’ve had protocols in place from the first detection and we haven’t moved away from that.

”At the moment we’re really concentrating on containment and ensuring best practice is adhered to.

”It is an extremely important industry for our region, we’re the biggest growers of bananas in Queensland so it’s important to the growers and economy as a whole that we work very closely together with the relevant agencies to contain this pathogen.”