More whitespot among prawn imports

PRAWN farmers have raised concerns diseased foreign prawns are being dumped in Australia after the Agriculture Department detected three contaminated batches.

Raw imports were banned in January, a month after an outbreak of white spot disease destroyed the prawn farming industry on the Logan River. Prawn farmers suspect the disease spread from imported prawns used as bait in the river by recreational fishermen.

The department has conceded it will probably never know how the disease entered the country, and five months ago allowed imports to resume with beefed-up regulations.

More than 130 consignments have been imported under the new controls with three testing positive for white spot.

More than 30 consignments have not been tested.