Tomato brown rugose fruit virus—South Australia detection

Movement control order

A movement control order (MCO) is in place to stop the movement of the virus and its carriers into Queensland.

The MCO is in effect from 13 September 2024.

Carriers that cannot be moved into Queensland include:

• tomato plants, seedlings, seeds, and fruit
• capsicum plants, seedlings, seeds and fruit
• chilli plants, seedlings, seeds and fruit
• other related carriers.

Tomato, capsicum and chilli packaging and containers coming into Queensland from South Australia, must also be new and unused or else meet cleaning and sanitising requirements.

What you need to do

You should practice safe biosecurity measures and report anything suspicious in your plants, crops or fruit immediately.

You should also:

• source clean seed and propagation material from reputable suppliers
• ensure you use thorough hygiene practices such as disinfecting tools, propagating equipment and vehicles
• ensure staff and visitors are trained and follow your biosecurity requirements
• monitor your crops regularly, isolate suspect plants and report anything suspicious
• remove wild tomato plants and other weeds such as nightshade that could act as reservoirs for the virus.

More information

See images and read more about the virus and its carriers.