Queensland farmers urge home gardeners to be vigilant as tomato virus strategy shifts

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Queensland farmers are urging home gardeners planting tomatoes, chillies and capsicums to be vigilant over fears that a highly contagious virus will spread. The tomato brown rugose fruit virus was first detected in South Australia last year and it's since been found on a farm in Victoria. Experts and the industry have abandoned eradication efforts and are instead moving to a management strategy.

Transcript

00:00Tomato brown rare gross fruit virus, or what we're deeming Tobroth, was first detected

00:08in Israel in 2014.

00:10Since that detection, it's been doing the rounds around the world and was picked up

00:15at a South Australian property in August last year.

00:20So what we know, this virus is a highly contagious virus.

00:24It's what we call a very highly stable virus, so it's easily transmitted through pathways

00:28such as fruit and seeds.

00:31And it affects plants by causing rougarose or wrinkling of a tomato plant.

00:37So when we're looking at a tomato fruit, we can see the brown discolouration there.

00:42We also see mottling on the leaves, so a yellowing of those leaves.

00:47And it's not in Queensland yet, is it?

00:50That's correct.

00:51That's correct.

00:52So at the moment, we know across Australia that we've got four infected properties, one

00:57in Victoria and three in South Australia.

00:59Here in Queensland, we've been doing a lot of work with our grower groups at the moment

01:03up in the Burdican in northern Queensland, where we've spent the day talking to farmers

01:07yesterday, understanding and listening to their concerns.

01:11We've done a whole lot of surveillance here in Queensland to make sure that we're confident

01:15that Queensland is currently absent from tomato brown rougarose fruit virus.

01:20And that's something we want to try and keep as long as possible.

01:22Right.

01:23So what should people do then if they see the virus on their produce?

01:26Yeah.

01:27Thanks, Rod.

01:28So I think there's a couple of things that people can do.

01:31And this is not only about farms, but it's also about home gardeners.

01:35Certainly home gardeners, if they can look at their fruit and they've got any concerns

01:39about the symptoms, we'll be encouraging those guys to call Biosecurity Queensland or hop onto

01:45our website.

01:46For farmers, now's the time to be thinking about on-farm biosecurity and to be talking

01:52with your local grower groups or associations.

01:54We've got some great grower groups up here in Queensland, such as Bow and Gumloo Growers Association,

01:59to talk through what needs to be done at the farm level.

02:02And that means about developing up a biosecurity plan and just being really careful about the

02:07people that you let on your farm and talking to your seed suppliers and your nursery men

02:11about the seeds that they're producing and the plants that they're producing.

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