General News
6 July, 2022
Panama TR4 detected on sixth banana farm
Panama disease tropical race 4 (TR4) has been detected on a sixth commercial banana farm in the Tully Valley.
Biosecurity Queensland (BQ) has advised the Australian Banana Growers’ Council (ABGC) that samples taken from suspect plants have returned positive results from diagnostic testing known as PCR (polymerase chain reaction).
As these are the first plants taken from the property to return a positive diagnosis, additional testing will be completed to provide further confidence in these initial results. This testing will likely take several weeks.
BQ discovered the suspect plants during routine surveillance.
Panama TR4 was first detected in the Tully Valley in 2015, and the disease has been detected on five farms since.
Panama TR4 is a severe banana disease that has been found on farms in Far North Queensland. It is caused by a fungus that lives in the soil.
The fungus is not eradicable and can survive in the soil for decades without host plants.
The disease is easily spread by people, vehicles, machinery and animals by the movement of:
• infected banana plants and planting material
• contaminated soil and water ABGC CEO Jim Pekin confirmed that the new detection was on a farm near the other infected properties.
He said any news of a new detection was a nervous time for both the growers and industry.
“First and foremost, our focus is on the affected grower, their family and workforce as they wait for further testing results,” Mr Pekin said.
“We always knew that as a soil-borne disease, it would be challenging to limit the spread of Panama TR4.
“However, this doesn’t detract from how devastating it is, and it comes at a time when many banana growers are facing unprecedented challenges.”
Mr Pekin and BQ agree that the new detection reinforces the need for growers to adopt and maintain robust biosecurity measures.
“This is a timely reminder to growers to ensure their on-farm biosecurity is robust for the protection of their farm and the wider banana industry,” he said.
Mr Pekin reiterated that Biosecurity Queensland and North Queensland growers had had incredible success in slowing the spread of Panama TR4, managing the disease more successfully than any other country in the world.
“We have demonstrated that we have the tenacity to rise to challenges presented by this disease, and I am confident that we will continue to do this into the future.”
