Devastating prawn virus outbreak reveals biosecurity ‘failures’

Biosecurity officials are being accused of failing to act early on a highly contagious and exotic prawn virus.

Ian Rossman, whose prawn farm in Queensland was hit. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Biosecurity officials are being ­accused of failing to act early and then botching emergency respons­es to an unprecedented outbreak of a highly contagious virus exotic to Australia that is devastating Queensland prawn farms, destroying jobs, spreading to prawns in the wild and threatening a $400 million industry.

Documents and disclosures by senior federal and state government officials, industry insiders and veterinary experts, obtained by The Australian, reveal “white spot” virus was being detected since last August at alarmingly high rates in imported raw green prawns tested in a departmental investigation leading up to the peak Christmas demand.

The disease spreads when infected­ imported raw prawns are used as bait in waterways near prawn farms, such as those now in quarantine near the Logan River south of Brisbane. But there has been no action to suspend sales of all the imported product in retail outlets, despite the infection rates.

As farms face indefinite shutdown and may be doomed, senior sources close to the federal Department­ of Agriculture and Water Resources have told industry leaders the infection rate of the virus in some batches of imported prawns tested in retail outlets has been recently put at more than 80 per cent since December.

Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, who has flagged serious charges against at least one importer for allegedly bypassing border controls, faces questions about how his department has managed the crisis and whether a failure to alert farmers early contributed to the financial disaster for farms.

Queensland biosecurity offic­ials confirmed yesterday the disease had been detected in prawns in the wild, with positive test results­ from 100 prawns caught near the mouth of the Logan River.

The virus has wiped out prawn farms in countries where it has taken hold, causing tens of billions of dollars in damage, and farmers fear its spread in Australia could become unstoppable.

Ian Rossmann, who has lost more than $1m since his farm near the Logan River was the first to be hit in late November, told The Australian yesterday: “The fact is that we should have been notified very early and we could have managed our farm differently. There is an ongoing biosecurity risk.”

Industry experts are angry at what they have described as late, inadequate responses from the federal department when the problem reared its head last year; a lack of transparency about what has been known; and a failure of federal and state agencies to liaise effectively and agree on comprehensive actions to slow the spread of the virus. Until now, Australia was one of the few countries with a significant prawn-farming industr­y free of the disease.

Industry leaders have told their lawyers that chief veterinary officer Mark Schipp disclosed in a teleconference late last month that “50 per cent” of imported prawns bought from retail outlets and tested were positive for white spot disease. There has not been any public statement or confirm­ation of the numbers despite repeated requests, and the federal department has said it is investig­ating whether imported prawns or some other pathway was the “definitive cause” of the outbreak.

Department deputy secretary Lyn O’Connell defended the handling as appropriate under all circumstances, but was unable to provide details about infection rates of prawns in retail outlets.

She said that when the rate of infected product attempting to enter Australia spiked from 4 per cent to 18 per cent last year there was a “significant investigation” into certain suppliers, a tightening of controls and testing in retail outlets. It was possible that a 50 per cent infection rate was an accurate reference to product from a certain importer, and not industry-wide.

Ms O’Connell could not say why farmers were not warned about the increasing risk, adding that all prawns supplied to stores by the alleged major culprits had been withdrawn. The department admitted last week in an update to the industry that in the most recent­ tests of 21 batches, 15 failed quarantine — a “high failure rate”, according to Ms O’Connell.

Farmers say the number shows there had been systemic failure in biosecurity measures.

Imported prawns with white spot are not harmful to humans but the spread of the virus wreaks devastation in an unaffected indust­ry such as that in Australia.

Farmers, who have lobbied unsucces­sfully for two decades for stricter controls of imports to prevent­ the devastating virus, were not told of the detection last August of a high infection rate in imported prawns. They were not warned until after Mr Rossmann and other farmers south of Brisbane raised the alarm when they identified illness in their own stock in late November.

Emergency actions including public alerts, closing farms, destructio­n of all prawn stock in farm ponds and quarantine procedures did not start until early December, when the federal department said the virus had been detected on one of the prawn farms and it posed “a significant threat to the national prawn farming industry” as it caused prawn mortality.

A ban on the imports of infected green prawns was not announced by Mr Joyce until early last month, despite his department’s knowledge of the unprecedented infection rates.

Mr Joyce has insisted that he ordered the import ban within a day of being told, and it is understood he was alarmed when external stakeholders advised him of the risks to farms.

Queensland government chief biosecurity officer Jim Thompson, who yesterday revealed the positive results on 100 prawns from the wild, said: “We have tested more than 8000 wild caught prawns since early December with almost no positive results until now. What has caused this sudden spike in positive cases at a new location is unknown at this stage. All avenues are being investigated to identify the source.

“We will continue sampling and testing to monitor the survival of the virus in the wild and to assess if it has established in the natural ­waterways.”

Imported green prawns infected with white spot are still being sold throughout Australia, despite evidence known to state and federal officials that customers had been using the cheaper prawns as bait for recreational fishing in the Logan River — just metres from the now-infected farms that rely on the river’s water.

This is a well-established pathway for transmission of the virus and is strongly suspected by farmers of triggering the outbreak in their ponds and the Logan River, probably spreading now to waters flowing into Moreton Bay and the Gold Coast’s Broadwater.

The department’s decision not to stop imports immediately or ban the further distribution and sale of prawns already in Australia when the department first knew of the very high infection rates has appalled farmers, who told The Australian they faced ruin because of bureaucratic incompetence. They said the inaction was contrary to the general obligations of the Biosecurity Act, designed to protect industry.

Insiders said Australia may have breached international treaty obligations to alert other countries straight away.

Prawn farmers have repeatedly warned that an outbreak of white spot disease could destroy their homegrown industry. They want Mr Joyce to order an urgent independent review to investigate when officials in his department first knew that white spot was being detected in prawns in retail outlets, and how they have managed the crisis since knowing of the high rates in test results.

Six of the eight farms in an infected zone near the Logan River have tested positive to white spot, which has led to quarantine procedures and the pumping of millions of litres of chlorine, destroy­ing prawn stocks worth tens of millions of dollars and eradicating more than 110 production ponds.

A positive result in a single prawn triggers eradication measures of entire farms.

Leading prawn farmers have told their lawyers that Brisbane has been the “weakest port to get infected product”. They claim importers of infected prawns have been permit­ted to select which boxes would be tested by officials, while hiding the infected boxes in the back of the container.

Five importers are under investigation for bringing in prawns with white spot and sources said some were suspected of defeating detection procedures with ruses including false labelling of boxes of imported prawns as being garlic­-marinated, when they were not marinated but infected.

In a briefing note to lawyers, Australian Prawn Farmers Assoc­iation executive Helen Jenkins states: “We have evidence that the biosecurity system has failed and (we are) unsure of what attempts if any there will be to fix it.

“We don’t have any public recall­ from the charged and investigated importers.

“Coles (and) Woolworths have not publicly demanded to know why their stores are selling white spot disease products.

“It appears at the federal level they want to hide things and get back to business as usual. APFA has lost a quarter of its industry for a disease they are not responsible for and Australia now has a new exotic disease on its doorstep.’’