Review of sugarcane Fiji leaf gall disease in Australia and the declaration of pest freedom in Central Queensland

Fiji leaf gall has been a major disease in the Australian sugarcane industry, causing extensive crop losses in the 1970–1990 period. The disease has been managed via a number of measures including varietal resistance, disease-free plant sources, termination of heavily-infested crops, quarantine and rogueing of disease stools. These measures have been highly effective and reduced detected disease incidence to zero in several districts. Over 32,000 crop inspections have been undertaken since the last known diseased crop was sighted in the Central Queensland region. All disease inspection data were collated and analysed for this region, with modelling undertaken to determine the probability of the disease being present but remaining undetected. These analyses suggest that it is very highly unlikely to be present; a proposal is made therefore to declare ‘area freedom from Fiji leaf gall’ for the Central Queensland region.