Alerts

Notification to importers of Cucurbita seed and nursery stock

This notification is to advise all importers of Cucurbita species that the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources has extended the host range for Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV) and updated the emergency quarantine measures to imported Cucurbit seed and nursery stock to address this biosecurity risk.

What is the change?

To manage the risk of further introduction of CGMMV into Australia, the department is extending the emergency measures to the following species of Cucurbita (seed and nursery stock) to apply to two additional species that are known to host the virus:

Cucurbita maxima (synonyms: Cucurbita andreana; Cucurbita maxima subsp. andreana; Cucurbita maxima var. turbaniformis; Cucurbita maxima subsp. maxima; Cucurbita turbaniformis)

Cucurbita moschata (synonym: Cucurbita pepo var. moschata)

When will the change occur?

The change to import conditions take effect on 17/12/2015.

What about consignments that have landed or are in transit to Australia?

For seeds:

Imported Curcubita seed that does not have phytosanitary certification demonstrating that a 9,400 seed sample was tested by ISTA 7-026 method of ELISA and found free of CGMMV, will require mandatory onshore testing of the consignment.

For full import conditions, please refer to the BICON CASE ‘Cucurbit seed for sowing requiring testing for cucumber green mottle mosaic virus’.

For nursery stock:

There are no active import permits for Cucurbita spp as Nursery stock.

Note: Imports of nursery stock that are a host of CGMMV are suspended entry into Australia.

Notification of review of emergency measures for CGMMV

To comply with Australia’s obligations under the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement (SPS Agreement), the department has initiated a pest risk analysis to review the emergency measures against CGMMV associated with host seeds, to ensure that the risk mitigation measures continue to be justified. The draft pest risk analysis will be released shortly for stakeholder comment on the department’s website.

Clients who are interested in subscribing as a stakeholder, may do so by completing the stakeholder registration form, available on the department’s website at http://www.agriculture.gov.au/biosecurity/risk-analysis/stakeholder

Further information

Please contact Plant Import Operations at imports@agriculture.gov.au or by telephone on 1800 900 090.