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Tassie aphid find sparks call for lettuce ban
31 Mar 2004
Victoria's vegetable growers want Tasmanian lettuce imports banned, following the discovery of the lettuce aphid, identified in Tasmania last week. Lettuce growers on Tasmania's south coast near Cambridge have already destroyed mature crops. In New Zealand, growers have been forced to plough lettuces back into the ground due to the aphid's presence.
Victoria's growers are angry that the only protocol for Tasmanian growers is that their lettuce shipments are certified by quarantine inspectors. The Victorian Vegetable Growers' Association said the aphid situation should be treated in a similar way to the outbreak of white blister fungus in Victorian broccoli crops last year: all trade of broccoli to other states was immediately suspended.
The association said if the aphid reaches Victoria, all of Werribee's lettuce crops would be wiped out. The aphid is resistant to most insecticides and has the capacity to act as a carrier for viruses, such as the lettuce mosaic virus.
Weekly Times, 31/3/04, page 11.
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