SRA’s Lead Field Pathologist Dr Seona Casonato at Tully Station is asking growers, productivity services staff and agronomists across the sugar industry to send samples of rust found on sugarcane leaves – brown rust now but more particularly orange rust which should appear at the start of the new year. The aim of the project is to determine differences of the rust species within and between biosecurity regions to gain an insight into population shifts of the current endemic rust pathogens.

Two rust fungi, Puccinia melanocephala (brown rust) and P. kuehnii (orange rust) are currently present in Australia, with orange rust estimated to cause sugarcane yield losses of up to 40%.An orange rust epidemic had a devastating impact on sugarcane in 2000 when the pathogen changed from rare to very common, completely altering the population dynamics. There is currently anecdotal evidence that brown rust is becoming more prevalent.

Earlier this year (left to right), Professor Benjamin Schwessinger and PhD students Lavi Singh and Samantha Whitling visited Dr Casonato at SRA Tully Station to view the pathogens in the field.

If you’d like to become involved in the project and know where there is rust on local sugarcane, please collect some leaf samples of rust, place them in a paper bag and send these to Dr Casonato with details of where the sample was found, the variety, and the date and time of collection. Place them in a refrigerator until ready to send by post. Do not put the samples in plastic bags as they will sweat causing the sample to deteriorate.  Mail them with a postal or courier service that ensures rapid delivery to prevent deterioration.

Send the samples to: Dr Seona Casonato, C/- SRA Tully Office, PO Box 566 Tully QLD 4854 Australia

Heads up!

Towards the end of 2025 and early 2026, pre-addressed envelopes will be sent to all productivity boards with the aim of capturing orange rust samples for Samantha Whitling’s PhD work.  The pre-paid, and pre-addressed, envelope will ensure samples are sent directly to Samantha.

The project, PBTC15 Molecular characterisation of sugarcane rust pathogens, will continue until 2028.