Qld authorities say there’s nothing to suggest White Spot has spread to inland rivers after diseased prawns were sold to a bait shop outside a control zone.

July 31, 2018

A Gold Coast bait supplier has copped a $10,000 fine for moving raw prawns infected with White Spot out of a control zone and selling them to a bait shop.

Strict controls on the movement of raw prawns, which carry the disease, have been in place since an outbreak devastated southeast Queensland prawn farms in 2016.

Authorities quickly removed the infected consignment from sale at the inland shop in the Warwick area.

Subsequent tests of local rivers and dams have not found any trace of White Spot, which is harmless to humans but causes high mortality rates in prawns.

“It is very lucky that the consignment was detected quickly and the bait recalled, otherwise someone could have unknowingly spread white spot disease to new waterways in the area,” Fisheries Minister Mark Furner said in a statement on Tuesday.

The bait supplier is the first to be fined for failing to comply with a biosecurity movement control order sparked by the White Spot outbreak.

“Commercial bait suppliers operating in the white spot disease restricted area should take heed from this and realise it is a criminal offence to move raw prawns, yabbies and marine worms out of the area,” Mr Furner said.

White Spot was detected in the Logan River south of Brisbane and at three of eight land-based prawn farms in 2016, crippling Queensland’s multi-million dollar prawn industry.

Prawns farmers were forced to kill all of their stock and decontaminate their facilities.

The disease was later found in wild prawn stocks in Moreton Bay.

Imported raw prawns were a suspected cause of the outbreak, although this was never proven.

The outbreak of the disease is believed to have cost farmers and associated industries almost $400 million.