E-Malt.com News article: 989

Canberra, April 30 (Dow Jones) - An outbreak of wheat streak mosaic virus in Australian grain research facilities likely won't impact commercial production, Peter McBride, a spokesman for wheat exporter AWB Ltd., said Wednesday. The virus now has been detected in research facilities in Adelaide and Canberra, and were it to become established in Australia this would behoove farmers to manage it, just like they do in the U.S., another major wheat producer and exporter, he said. "At the end of the day we believe it should be managed properly and should have no effect on production," McBride told Dow Jones Newswires.

AWB is monitoring the outbreak and is confident authorities will manage any outbreak, he said. None of the company's grain research facilities have received plants from the infected sites, he said. McBride was commenting after Australia late Tuesday activated an emergency plan to contain and eradicate the potentially devastating virus after it was found at a research institute in Adelaide. Australia is a major global exporter of winter cereals, including wheat and barley. Production of winter grains is a major industry in Australia.

Agriculture Minister Warren Truss said it isn't known at this stage whether the outbreak of the virus at the Waite Institute in Adelaide can be linked to its discovery earlier in April at research facilities in Canberra.

Wheat streak mosaic virus is prevalent in the U.S., Russia, and eastern Europe. It attacks wheat, barley, corn, some grasses, oats and rye, is spread by wheat curl mite, and can cause the death of infected leaves or plants, he said.


30 April, 2003