Virus alert for Busan tomato farms... Biosecurity tightened, including restrictions on outside access

[Financial News] Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV), a virus subject to national quarantine controls, has recently been detected at a greenhouse farm in Busan, prompting calls for farmers to exercise particular caution.
On the 8th, according to the Busan Agricultural Technology Center, ToBRFV is a highly pathogenic virus that affects solanaceous crops such as tomatoes, bell peppers and chili peppers.
When plants are infected, their leaves develop mosaic mottling, wrinkles and deformities in which they become as thin as needles. Stem and calyx necrosis can also lead to poor fruit set or fruit drop. In severe cases, the fruit rots and production can plunge by 30 to 70 percent, dealing a devastating blow to farm incomes.
Above all, with no control agent currently available, the virus can spread inside greenhouses through even slight contact—not only from workers’ hands, gloves and pruning shears, but also from shoes or brushing against work clothes. It is known to remain infectious for long periods even when present on seed coats or plant debris.
For this reason, the city’s Agricultural Technology Center urged farmers to strictly follow key biosecurity measures to prevent crops from becoming infected, including barring outsiders from entering, preventing contact transmission at the source and reporting suspected cases remotely. 
For advice about symptoms or to request testing, call the center’s Technical Agriculture Team.
The director of the city’s Agricultural Technology Center, Park Mi-jin, stressed, "It is of utmost importance to understand the virus’s characteristics and for farms to prevent its introduction themselves by restricting outside access and maintaining rigorous hygiene."
Meanwhile, around 520 farms currently grow tomatoes in Busan’s Gangseo area. 


[email protected] Kwon Byeong-seok Reporter