The State Government has sent surveillance teams to the North West to confirm the absence of citrus canker.

Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development teams are visiting Kununurra, Wyndham, Broome, Derby, Halls Creek, Karratha, Roebourne, Port Hedland, South Hedland, Fitzroy Crossing, Exmouth and Point Samson as part of the response.

Department acting chief plant biosecurity officer Sonya Broughton said citrus canker had been removed from three properties in Wyndham and Kununurra in August 2018.

 
 
“The focus is shifting from tracing citrus plants known to have come into WA 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,” she said.

“The more citrus plants we can locate and inspect, the more evidence we have that citrus canker is absent in northern WA.

“Even if your plant is healthy, we need to know its location and health status as part of our surveillance work.”

The surveillance teams will be focusing on caravan parks, new housing developments, community gardens, nurseries, garden centres and landscape businesses, but stressed reports supporting the absence of citrus canker from all areas were valuable.

There have been no additional detections of citrus canker in WA since the initial three cases.