Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum (CLso) absent from mainland Australia

Publication Date

Tue, 08 Apr 2025, 05:11

Last Updated

April 8, 2025, 5:11 a.m.

Report Number

AUS-115/1

Country

Australia

Pest Id

Liberibacter solanacearum - (LIBEPS)

Report Status

Final

Hosts

CLso (zebra chip) is a bacterial disease, spread by the tomato-potato psyllid (TPP), that causes stunted or abnormal growth in vegetable crops, including potato, tomato, carrot, capsicum and chillies.

Pest Status (ISPM 8 - 2021)

• Absent: pest not recorded

Geographical Distribution

CLso is present on Norfolk Island. Norfolk Island is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, approximately 1,400km east of mainland Australia. CLso is absent from the Australian mainland.

Summary

Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum (CLso) was detected in Norfolk Island (an Australian external territory) in 2014. CLso is not known to occur on mainland Australia.

Danger

In 2022, a scientific journal article listed CLso as being present in Australia. The article did not distinguish between mainland Australia and Norfolk Island (an Australian external territory). CLso is not known to occur on mainland Australia. Australia adopts a risk-based approach to surveillance. Both national and border surveillance programs, that include a combination of visual surveillance, trapping, and molecular testing across identified risk areas and facilities growing host plants, have not detected the presence of CLso on mainland Australia. Additionally, an extensive surveillance program undertaken for CLso on mainland Australia during the response to an incursion of the CLso vector, tomato-potato psyllid, in Western Australia in 2017, did not detect CLso.

Contact for info

Australian Chief Plant Protection Officer Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry GPO Box 858 Canberra ACT 2601 [email protected]

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