Australia: Plants destroyed on TR4-contaminated banana farm
Peak industry body the Australian Banana Growers' Council (ABGC) has destroyed banana plants on the part of the North Queensland farm quarantined for Panama Disease Tropical Race IV (TR4), acting on behalf on the farm's owner. 
On Saturday (March 28), an ABGC field officer and his assistant destroyed a total of 210 plants on a 10-hectares section of the Tully-based farm, including the 10 plants that had tested positive for TR4 plus another 200 surrounding plants.
The plant destruction was supervised by Biosecurity Queensland (BQ) inspectors.
The disease was first confirmed on the plantation on March 15, marking the first time TR4 had been detected on the state of Queensland. In the 1990s the disease hit production on plantations in the neighboring Northern Territory and wiped out the vast majority of farms.
The ABGC said the recent destruction of the plants was an important step in containing the disease, and chairman Doug Phillips thanked the grower from the affected farm for his continuing assistance with the response to TR4 confirmation.
On Friday evening, the grower was provided with an order by BQ for the plants' destruction and he immediately accepted an ABGC offer to carry out the destruction on his behalf.
"The destruction of the TR4-affected banana plants and the surrounding plants is important step in containing this plant disease," Mr Phillips said.
"On behalf of the banana industry, the ABGC would like to thank the farm's owner and his family for their continuing assistance with this very important biosecurity response."
The ABGC welcomed news from BQ that the test results completed on plant samples have so far shown no TR4 has been found on other North Queensland banana farms.
Phillips added the announcement that no TR4-positive test results had been identified from plant samples collected from other North Queensland banana farms was good news for the industry.
"It's very encouraging that there have been no detections of TR4 on other banana farms," he 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."
Related story: Global banana industry must ‘rethink whole business model’, says expert
Photo: www.shutterstock.com
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