Xylella Fastidiosa Host Range Increases
The Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment (DAWE) have advised GIA of a BICON Alert that the department issued earlier this month advising of changes DAWE are making to the emergency measures for Xylella host species, which will affect the import conditions for some nursery stock genera. These actions are being carried out under Australia’s emergency measures for Xylella and will commence on 3 August 2020. The emergency measures are in place to safeguard Australia from the entry of Xylella fastidiosa (and all of its sub-species) and X. taiwanensis. The known host range of Xylella is expanding.
Under Australia’s emergency measures for Xylella, changes in host status means that measures are required to reduce the likelihood of this pathogen entering Australia. Due to new published literature showing that Xylella infects new hosts, the emergency measures will be applied to nine (9) additional plant families. This change affects 59 genera within BICON (see Table 1 in the BICON Alert) for a list of affected genera. These additional families will increase the total number of regulated plant families from 89 families to 98 families. Furthermore, DAWE advise that seventeen (17) genera no longer require regulatory measures for Xylella, as they do not belong to a regulated plant family (see Table 2 in the BICON Alert).
To receive future BICON Alerts from the department, GIA recommends that stakeholders are registered by subscribing via BICON . GIA also recommends stakeholders, who are interested in receiving Biosecurity Advices and updates on plant biosecurity policies, to subscribe to Biosecurity Risk Analysis Plant via the DAWE online subscription service. DAWE are happy for individual growers to contact them directly with any questions. DAWE can be contacted at plantstakeholders@agriculture.gov.au .
Further information: email National Biosecurity Manager John McDonald at john.mcdonald@greenlifeindustry.com.au
