SYDNEY July 2 (Xinhua) -- Australian media has reported on Monday that prawns bought from 10 retail outlets in the Australian State of Queensland were tested and found to be positive for white spot virus.
"We have a route of a virus that is a particularly dangerous virus and shown worldwide just how destructive it can be,"said Wayne Knibb, a University of the Sunshine Coast Professor, who conducted the testing.
"It's damaged whole national economies, and its cost billions of dollars."
In 2016 an outbreak of white spot is estimated to have cost the prawn and associated industries in Queensland up to 400 million Australian dollars (221 million U.S. dollars).
While the disease is not dangerous to humans, it is deadly for prawns, making an outbreak catastrophic for both wild and agricultural populations.
Although it was never proven, it's suspected that imported prawns were the cause for the outbreak two years ago.
With white spot now reported to be present in 30 percent of the samples tested, Australia's biosecurity defences have come under intense scrutiny for allowing a return of the virus.
In response to this, a statement from the federal department for Agriculture said, it is vital to remember that the department has been very clear that its enhanced import conditions do not guarantee that there will never be (white spot) present in prawns imported into Australia."
"(However) there is insufficient evidence to support an argument that these enhanced import conditions for prawns are not working," the department for Agriculture said.
But a former adviser to the inspector-general of Biosecurity Australia Brian Jones, has criticized the new measures that were brought in, labeling them as "too easy to circumvent."
"The government is not fulfilling its duty," he said.
"The department demonstrated a remarkable level of naivety about the potential for importers to wilfully circumvent import conditions for any class of prawns that required viral testing."
