New Report – Planning for TR4

In May and June, the Australian Banana Growers’ Council (ABGC) provided assistance to interested growers to prepare their Farm Biosecurity Management Plan. This week, pathologist, Shane Dullahide reported on that work.

Shane assisted growers to develop individual plans tailored to the operations of their banana farms.  The plans covered risk minimisation activities that meet conditions required by the Biosecurity Manual. 

He also developed a Biosecurity Plan Template, which is based on operational tasks for all growers at risk to do.

Biosecurity Queensland (BQ) requires the owners of TR4 infested land to develop a Farm Biosecurity Management Plan to document how they will abide by the regulatory requirements. This Plan is a requirement for a grower to maintain banana sales and fruit movement to market.

Having a Plan in place before a farm becomes infested with TR4 will have two main benefits:

  • If and when another farm becomes infested with TR4, the farm operators or owners will be ready to enact their plan. Should the worst happen, they will be able to make decisions quickly about ongoing farm operations. This is preferable than trying to sort this out under stressful conditions that occur after such news.
  • It will highlight risk pathways which will help farms with biosecurity measures, thereby reducing risks of TR4 infection or spread.

The preparation of these plans is not a trivial undertaking. It is therefore good sense for these plans to be in place before TR4 is detected on a farm.

Shane’s Report and Biosecurity Plan Template are available for view on the link below.

Shane noted that, “the logic outlined in this template provide some great outcomes for growers, industry and BQ.”

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Download Biosecurity Plan Template