Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Chief plant officer Doctor Anne Walters says an aggressive pest worm has been detected in the Top End, which is the first time it's been found in the country

Transcript

Chief plant officer Doctor Anne Walters says an aggressive pest worm has been detected in the Top End, which is the first time it's been found in the country · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And we know that a highly pathnogenic and aggressive worm
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: which affects the crop yield of fruit and veggies, has
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: been detected in the top end. Now it's the first
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: time that the pest has been found in the country
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and Chief Plant Health Officer doctor Anne Walters joins me
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: on the line to tell us a little bit more.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Anne, Hello, how you going?
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: You're really good? Thank you And can you tell me
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: more about this worm.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it's called guabo rootnot nematode. It's a microscopic pest
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  Speaker 2: that we've found at four starts in Darwin. We found
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  Speaker 2: it at middle Point, at Gingerly, at Malac and at Palmerstan,
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  Speaker 2: so you can see that it has already is quite widespread.
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  Speaker 2: What we did was we had a report from some
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  Speaker 2: cucumbers that were basically failing, and obviously did some diagnostics
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  Speaker 2: and it came back as this particular nematode.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, and tell me exactly what kind of plants it's
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  Speaker 1: targeting and the damage that it does.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's got a really widee which is why it's
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  Speaker 2: such a devastating test and includes things like tomatoes, capsicaan eggplant, watermelon,
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  Speaker 2: sweet potato, and potato, soybeans and cucumber and guava, so
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  Speaker 2: it's got a really wide home post range. What the
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  Speaker 2: pest does is, as I said, it's microscopic. It sort
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  Speaker 2: of drills into the roots of the plant and it
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  Speaker 2: will basically live there, and the plant's response is to
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  Speaker 2: form these gauls on the roots, and over time, basically
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  Speaker 2: the plant just starts to die. And what you see
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  Speaker 2: is very poor yield. The plant's not looking good. And
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  Speaker 2: it's not until you actually pull the plant out and
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  Speaker 2: have a look at the roots that you see these
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  Speaker 2: gulls on there that are typical of this particular path.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: So, and you know, for us Layman's listening this morning,
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  Speaker 1: does it impact Is it more of an impact for
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  Speaker 1: consumers people sort of eating their fruit and veg or
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  Speaker 1: for those growers, And yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: It's very much more an impact for growers, yep. But
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  Speaker 2: it doesn't actually affect the produce. So it won't affect
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: necessarily the sweet potato unless you have really really bad infestation.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: But generally for people like you and I who were
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: just eating our sweet potato, there's no real impact for us.
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  Speaker 2: But it's the people that are growing the sweet potato
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  Speaker 2: that have really reduced yields, and so they're growing plants,
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  Speaker 2: but they're getting so fifty per cent of the yield
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  Speaker 2: as an example, that's when it's a real impact on them.
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  Speaker 1: How did you detect it in the territory.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we were just really lucky. And this is where
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  Speaker 2: the great relationship we have with growers are fantastic. Because
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  Speaker 2: one of our growers contacted us and said, look, my
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: keycumbers aren't doing very well. Can someone come out and
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  Speaker 2: have a look. And some of our plant pathologies went
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  Speaker 2: out and had a look and said this doesn't look right.
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  Speaker 2: It took some samples and this is what was coming
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  Speaker 2: back with.
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  Speaker 1: So at this point in time, do you have any
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  Speaker 1: idea how it seemed up here?
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  Speaker 2: No, it's a really interesting question. We've started doing some
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  Speaker 2: tracing work. But the thing about this particular pest is
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  Speaker 2: that it can move around, like I said, on the
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  Speaker 2: roots of things. But the key movement pathway we think
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: is through soil, so people moving soil around, a loading
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: from soil into your trailer and moving it around. Alternatively,
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  Speaker 2: it can move on soil and equipment and machinery as
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: well as on people's boots, so it can move really easily,
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  Speaker 2: and that's where it's a really big problem.
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  Speaker 1: So what steps need to be taken now to try
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  Speaker 1: to stop the spread as much as we can.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So what we're telling people is to be really vigilant.
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  Speaker 2: If you're moving from your place to someone's property, obviously,
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  Speaker 2: just take care to clean your boots so that you're
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  Speaker 2: not spreading it onto a commercial or orchard or property.
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  Speaker 2: The other thing that we are asking our goal is
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  Speaker 2: to do is be really careful with their biosecurity practices,
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  Speaker 2: so you know, make sure that you've got your protocols
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  Speaker 2: in place and that you're following them really vigilantly.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, And what's surveillanceing is the department doing to really
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  Speaker 1: try to stay on top of this and hopefully halt
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  Speaker 1: the spread.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So what we are doing is we are asking
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  Speaker 2: people to let us know if you notice that your
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  Speaker 2: plants aren't looking too good and that you want someone
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  Speaker 2: to come out alternatively, if you want to take example,
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  Speaker 2: so if you want to pull some plants out and
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  Speaker 2: tend in the roots. We'll obviously be really grateful for
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  Speaker 2: samples that people can in and we're in contact with
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: our commercial growers just to get some samples from them
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  Speaker 2: and to have them looking out for this particular path.
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  Speaker 1: And you've touched on the different areas where you believe
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  Speaker 1: this worm is at the moment, do you have any
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  Speaker 1: idea how many properties it's impacting.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Well, they're the only four that we're aware of at
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  Speaker 2: the moment, and so that's what a lot of our
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  Speaker 2: work is, just getting people to contact us and say hey,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: I'm a bit concerned and we can get some samples
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  Speaker 2: from them. So that's probably the best way for us
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  Speaker 2: to get as much information as quickly as we can.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, and so and is this worm like is
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  Speaker 1: it in others? It's obviously in other parts of Australia
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  Speaker 1: at the moment, but what kind of impact is it
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  Speaker 1: causing in some of the places where it is already
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  Speaker 1: been identified?
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  Speaker 2: Unfortunately we are the first ones in Australia to find it. Wow,
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  Speaker 2: big issue that we have. So it's the first time
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  Speaker 2: it's ever been found in Australia before. There are other species, sorry,
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  Speaker 2: other species of this particular nematody in other places, such
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  Speaker 2: as in Queensland and New South Wales, but not this
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  Speaker 2: particular one. Fortunately, this one is a very bad nematode.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Goodness me. So we're actually the first in Australia to
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  Speaker 1: have this, and by the sounds of it, it is
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  Speaker 1: a worry.
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  Speaker 2: It is a real worry for us. Absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: What you know is what's sort of been the feedback
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  Speaker 1: then from some of those commercial growers and producers. They
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  Speaker 1: must be pretty concerned at this point.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, obviously industry is concerned. And the great thing
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  Speaker 2: is we've only got the one commercial grower that's affected
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  Speaker 2: at the moment. The other science are residential coperties and
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  Speaker 2: a community garden, which is really great from that perspective.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: The grower that is affected has been fantastic. He's looking
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  Speaker 2: at alternative crops that he can plant because obviously the
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: issue that we have with his particular nematodi is that
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  Speaker 2: it will stay in the soil for thirteen months even
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  Speaker 2: after you remove the host plant. Yeah, so he's looking
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  Speaker 2: to find another plant that he can plant during that
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  Speaker 2: time and leave the soil so that the nematode will
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: basically die out. So he's been really fantastic, can pragmatic him,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: very grateful for his response and his approach.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Well, I tell you what, I think that every territory
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  Speaker 1: in listening this morning is going to want to do
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  Speaker 1: everything that they can to make sure that we don't
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  Speaker 1: see this spread. You know, what can we do as
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: just ordinary territorians to make sure that you know that
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: we try to help out these growers and try to
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: do the right thing by them.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fantastic, and obviously if the community can get
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: behind the growers, that would be amazing. If you do
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: have any concerns or any samples that you want to
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: send in to us, please contact Plant buy a Security
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: at the Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade and we
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: would be very pleased to answer any questions but also
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: to take any samples. Well.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Chief Plant Health Officer, Doctor Anne Walters, I really appreciate
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: your time this morning, and thank you very much for
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  Speaker 1: sort of letting us know exactly what the situation is
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  Speaker 1: with this worm. But you know, I guess also making
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  Speaker 1: sure that we're all aware of the concerns here so
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  Speaker 1: that we can do our best to try to support
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  Speaker 1: our growers, but also make sure that if we are
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  Speaker 1: concerned about any thing that's maybe our yards as well.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: I'm assuming that it can also be spread into those
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  Speaker 1: domestic sort of locations.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's correct, and so if people do notice anything
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  Speaker 2: that's a little bit unusual obviously, please get in contact
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  Speaker 2: with us and we will do everything we can to
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  Speaker 2: try and support people through this time.
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  Speaker 1: Doctor and Walters, thank you so much for your time
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: this morning.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Such a pleasure. Thank you for having me.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Thank you