In Queensland, with the banana industry has confirmed the eighth case of Panama tropical race 4 (TR4). The latest positive Panama TR4 test result came from a commercial plantation in the Tully Valley last month. It is a disease that enters banana trees through the roots, causing discoloration in the trunk and leaves. The fungal disease starves banana trees of nutrients, eventually killing the plant.
Australian Banana Growers Council chair and Tully grower Leon Collins said the fungal disease spread was sad but not surprising. "It is next to an infected property," he said. "[Panama TR4 is] gradually on its move down the river. It's amazing that we've slowed it up so much, to tell you the truth."
However, Collins said the current prevention measures including on-farm biosecurity were slowing the spread of the disease. "There's no doubt it has been working," he said. "It's a credit to all the growers that they have been doing what they have done. To be living by that was a big change for us to start off with but we're all used to it now.”
Other banana varieties could be solution
Bettering the gold finger banana variety could provide growers with another tool to fight against Panama TR4. A Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries-led study is trialling more palatable type of the gold finger banana variety, which has some resistance to the disease. Research horticulturalist Katy Robertson was interviewed by the ABC at a conference in Cairns last month and said gold finger had never become popular in Australia.
Source: abc.net.au