Western Australia is stepping up its fight against citrus canker, with surveillance teams from the state’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development conducting extensive inspections.
The teams have travelled to the Kimberley and Pilbara regions to confirm the disease is absent in northern parts of the state.
Caravan parks, new housing development areas, community gardens, nurseries, garden centres and landscape businesses throughout the regions are all being inspected.
The move comes after three properties were confirmed to have citrus canker in Wyndham and Kununurra in August this year. The department’s plant biosecurity officer, Sonya Broughton, said all affected citrus plants at these properties had been removed.
“The focus is shifting from tracing citrus plants known to have come into Western Australia from the Northern Territory since January 2017, to asking anyone in the north who has a citrus plant, regardless of its age, to contact the department so it can be recorded and be inspected if necessary,” Broughton said in a releaase.
“The more citrus plants we can locate and inspect, the more evidence we have that citrus canker is absent in northern Western Australia. Even if your plant is healthy, we need to know its location and health status as part of our surveillance work.”
