IT IS only a matter of time before huanglongbing, which is also known as citrus greening disease, makes its way to Australia. This was one of the key messages at the Citrus Tech Conference held in Mildura last week. HLB is a bacterial disease that was first found in southern California in 2012. It has no cure and spreads through the tree canopy via a sap-sucking insect. It results in citrus fruits turning bitter, misshapen and inedible. Trees eventually die.Costa Group business development manager Steve Burdette, who is also on the Citrus Australia committee, said Australia needed to be proactive about HLB, as it was only a matter of when, not if, the disease would be detected here.
It is already heavily ingrained in other citrus-growing countries. According to Florida Citrus, HLB was now being detected in every commercial citrus-producing county in the state and was considered the biggest threat the industry has faced as it causes production to plummet.
Mr Burdette said it was quite scary to see what was happening in Florida and California whch had set up a team to reduce the spread of the disease. “I think HLB resistant varieties are a long way off,” Mr Burdett said.
“There are new techniques for breeding varieties that are resistance to HLB, but I’ve heard that in Florida they are not going to use their GM root stock because consumers have such a resistance to GM products. It’s not the ideal option going forward.”
Mr Burdette said early detection of the disease was crucial and would allow Australian growers to control it.
“We need to have a very effective HLB contingency plan that is updated every year and through that everyone will know what their responsibilities are,” he said.
“Abandoned orchards are the key source of infection and this is something from a state and commonwealth point of view that I think needs to be cleaned up. “As growers we need to particulate in on farm biosecurity awareness and there needs to be community education, and we need stronger collaboration between all stake holders.” Department of Agriculture and Water Resources deputy secretary Lyn O’Connell said the department took the threat of HLB very seriously.She said biosecurity was the future and had to be a shared responsibility. “Tomorrow is constantly changing and because of that there is an enormous amount of growth needed,” she said.
Source: Weekly times