The Department of Agriculture in Western Australia has reassured growers that there has been no detection of Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus (WSMV) in Western Australia or its vector.

Department Executive Director for Plant Industries Rob Delane said the State's wheat breeding program remains on track and the Department was participating in a comprehensive surveillance and sampling program in support of an eradication program targeting the Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus.

The sampling program was instigated by the national Consultative Committee on Exotic Plant Pest Diseases. The Committee is overseeing the eradication of the plant disease, which has been detected at CSIRO properties in Canberra and South Australia.

In Western Australia, one property remains in quarantine as a precautionary measure.

"The Western Australia property has been identified as having received seed from one of the affected premises in Canberra. However, there were no disease symptoms on the source plants in Canberra, and there continues to be no sign of the disease at the property in the State's south. Nor has the disease’s main vector, the Wheat Curl Mite been detected in Western Australia," Mr Delane said

"The owner of the property is continuing to spray for mites and weed hosts and the Department has ensured its biosecurity staff have been briefed and the industry is being kept informed," he said.

Plant stock within the Department's breeding program, plus any other programs that have cereal plants growing at present, is being tested and sampled as a routine part of nation-wide surveillance and sampling.

While there is no evidence of the virus being present outside the Waite Institute in South Australia and at two CSIRO facilities in Canberra, sampling is being undertaken as a precautionary measure.

Material is being collected and sent to both the Department’s virology laboratory and CSIRO in Canberra for testing. Results are expected to become available over the next week or two, enabling a decision to be made by May 12 regarding the fate of breeding material currently under quarantine.

"There continues to be full cooperation between all crop breeding and research organisations that may be at risk from WSMV, with all parties taking a conservative approach to WSMV risk," Mr Delane said.

"This cooperation ensures that the situation continues to be managed in the best interests of the State’s grains industry. The Department will maintain its close contact with all affected parties over coming weeks," he said.

WSMV is spread by the Wheat Curl Mite, and WSMV disease symptoms include a pattern of leaf streaking that becomes necrotic and may cause death of infected leaves or plant.