For your information:
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Tuesday, 28 September 1999
PRESS RELEASE
Birds Australia and the South Australian Ornithological Association call
for funds to combat a new disease, which is spreading rapidly and killing
trees across southern Australia.
"Mundulla Yellows" is a newly discovered disease that kills Australian
plants, particularly eucalypts. It has recently been reported from all
five southern Australian states where it is rapidly spreading across
agricultural and urban areas. Tens of thousands of trees and shrubs now
show signs of the disease and the prediction on current evidence is that
more trees and shrubs will be infected and also die.
This loss of vegetation will seriously impact on Australia's biodiversity
of which birds are just one component. The disease has been reported also
in revegetation sites and so threatens all the good work performed under
Landcare and Natural Heritage Trust programs. The disease also threatens
agroforestry.
The causal agent, method of spread and cure for Mundulla Yellows are not
known.
At a joint meeting of Birds Australia and the South Australian
Ornithological Association in Berri on 28 September 1999, delegates
unanimously resolved that:
"Federal and State politicians should be made aware that Mundulla Yellows
threatens Australia's biodiversity, agroforestry and revegetation programs
and will continue to spread causing billions of dollars of damage unless
substantial funding is provided immediately to:
i. identify the causal agent,
ii. determine the method of spread, and
iii. develop effective methods of control of this disease."
Contact:
Dr David Paton,
Department of Environmental Biology,
University of Adelaide,
Adelaide,
South Australia, 5005.
Phone: 08 8303 4742. Fax: 08 8303 4364.
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Hugo Phillipps
Communications Coordinator
Birds Australia
415 Riversdale Road
HAWTHORN EAST 3123, Australia
tel: (03) 9882 2622, fax: (03) 9882 2677
email: <>
Web site: <http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au>
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