Disease Outbreak In Australia
22 June 2006 The Australian state of Queensland has been hit by an outbreak of the fungal disease sugar cane smut for the first time. Eight locations in the Childers area of Queensland have been placed under quarantine to contain the spread of the disease, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agriculture Service (USDA-FAS).
Nearly all of Australia’s sugar cane crop is grown in Queensland and northern New South Wales. The disease could pose a major threat to Australia’s sugar industry. Ian Wallace, chief executive officer of the sugar industry research body BSES (formerly the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations) said the outbreak would not have a big effect on this year’s crop, which is now being harvested, but may damage future crops. "This disease causes between 30% and 100% crop loss," Wallace said.
Sugarcane smut was detected in Western Australia in 1998 and has been managed by planting disease resistant crops.
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