Quarantine alert might have prevented white spot disease outbreak, review finds
by Christopher Knaus from on (#2K2A0)
Federal authorities investigating prawn imports did not tell Biosecurity Queensland about breaches
The white spot virus outbreak that devastated prawn farms in south-east Queensland may have been avoided if federal authorities investigating quarantine failures had warned the state's biosecurity agency, a review has found.
The damning assessment is contained in the report of a marine biologist, Ben Diggles, who was contracted to investigate the white spot outbreak by the Fisheries Development and Research Centre - a body jointly funded by government and industry.