LEADING plant scientists believe the government is ignoring new test results revealing the exotic myrtle rust fungus, found in forest nurseries on the NSW Central Coast in April, is almost identical to the devastating guava rust, yet a national plan to help contain guava rust has still not been enacted.
While the Government's own plant scientists say they are confident the incursion found on the Central Coast is not guava rust, independent plant pathologists argue the appropriate checks and balances have not been completed and should be initiated to help control, or even eradicate the disease.
Guava rust is seen as one of the most serious disease threats to Australian native flora.
Australia has approximately half of the world’s native myrtaceae species and guava rust has the potential for devastating follow-on consequences to some endangered animals that depend on myrtaceous plants for survival.
It's still not known how myrtle rust got to Australia and managed to infect plants at three nurseries north of Sydney.
The rust has been found affecting three separate species of myrtaceous plants, but has so far not spread to nearby native eucalyptus populations.
It's for this reason the government is confident the rust is not guava, because guava usually spreads quickly and rapidly to eucalyptus populations.
But president of the Australian Plant Pathology Society, Dr Caroline Mohammed, who works at the University of Tasmania, says her own sequencing of the genes found in the rust detected on the Central Coast reveal a 99 per cent similarity to the genes found in guava rust.
Dr Mohammed was part of a group which helped draw up a national management plan for guava rust which was adopted by the previous government in 2006, but has not been implemented for this outbreak.
"This is a huge biosecurity risk," Dr Mohammed said.
"The government must immediately enact a contingency response plan, but at the moment not even the appropriate checks and balances have been done.
"The quarrel over the name should stop – what we have found is a disease which is almost identical to guava rust so a plan for guava rust should be initiated as soon as possible to contain the incursion.
"I don't want to be alarmist, but given the high risk posed by guava rust, I believe we need to take all the necessary precautions until we know exactly what we're dealing with."
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry's chief plant protection officer, Lois Ransom, said the Government has done specific tests for guava rust and the fungus has so far not been detected in the outbreak of myrtle rust found on the Central Coast.
Mrs Ransom said she was confident enough to rule out any presence of guava but added the Government had recognised the need to do more comparative work on the genetic front on the two diseases.
She said the current level of infection of myrtle rust was very low and despite advice saying the disease may not be eradicated, it may in fact be possible to do so under the current circumstances and the Government was looking at a plan to potentially revisit eradication opportunities.
Opposition spokesman for agriculture, John Cobb, said he was concerned the Rudd Government was downplaying the seriousness of this disease incursion.
Mr Cobb said eight weeks after the initial detection there was still no approved National Management Plan in place.
"Confusion surrounding the identity of the rust has exacerbated the problem, with the Rudd Government refusing to take the threat seriously. What was originally diagnosed as myrtle rust is now believed to be guava rust," Mr Cobb said.
"Climate mapping indicates that guava rust could establish in a large proportion of Australia’s World Heritage Rainforest.
"Alarmingly the massive amounts of carbon stored in our forests could be at risk and if the growth rate of our eucalypt forests is decreased because of this disease, so too will be the uptake of carbon."
Email a friend