Agriculture Victoria has confirmed new phylloxera detections in the Yarra Valley, including near Yarra Junction.
Detections came both inside the current Maroondah Phylloxera Infested Zone (PIZ) and outside the PIZ in the Phylloxera Risk Zone (PRZ) to the south-east of the Maroondah PIZ.
Phylloxera is a soft-bodied insect pest that eats grapevine roots, which can kill the plant.
Phylloxera was first detected in the Yarra Valley in December 2006. The region’s Maroondah Phylloxera Infested Zone (PIZ) boundary has been redrawn seven times since then as new detections have been reported.
The detections within the PIZ will result in an extension to the eastern edge of the current Maroondah PIZ boundary, referred to as the ‘Badger Creek extension’. While the PRZ detection has resulted in a separate 5 kilometre buffer area being created.
Agriculture Victoria has advised that the currently isolated detection in the PRZ adjacent to the Maroondah PIZ is not expected to become a separate PIZ, but is likely to be integrated into an extended Maroondah PIZ.
All of the detections were as a result of industry self-reporting. The detections within the PIZ have been confirmed as the G1 strain, the same as that of other vineyards inside the Maroondah PIZ. Strain typing is still underway for the detection in the PRZ.
Phylloxera can be picked up and spread by grapes and grape-related material, machinery and equipment, diagnostic samples and vineyard soil.
Agriculture Victoria advises if you are moving any of the above ‘phylloxera risk vectors’ between phylloxera management zones (PIZ, PIBZ, PRZ and Phylloxera Exclusion Zone) within or between states, you must comply with state movement conditions.
Footwear and clothing can also pick up and spread phylloxera, but the movement of people is not regulated. Landowners are responsibility to be aware of and implement best-practice farm-gate hygiene for phylloxera which will hold you in good stead for prevention of all pests, diseases and weed incursions.
