A major citrus grower in Queensland is calling for all citrus plants within canker control areas in the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region of Western Australia to be destroyed.
The highly contagious disease was detected in the Top End two months ago and was more recently detected in Katherine, Kununurra and Wyndham.
Citrus grower, Craig Pressler had 200,000 of his own trees destroyed in 2004 when canker was found in central Queensland.
He said destroying the plants was the only way to stop the spread of canker, which threatened Australia's $700 million citrus industry.
"If the trees are to be destroyed, I have always said compensation should be paid to all of those people who have citrus trees removed," said Mr Pressler.
"I'm not just whinging about this from our circumstances, I am looking at it for the future of the citrus industry … that this is the right decision … this is the only course of action to take.
Mr Pressler said he sympathised with the growers and nurseries going through the ordeal.
"[Destroying the trees] was the right decision [when we had canker in the Emerald region] but it was too late.
"It should have been done when citrus canker was first discovered in the area.
"Time is of the essence in that the major cause of the spread of canker is wind-driven rain and you can't wait until after the cyclone season to decide — you must decide before.
"Otherwise it will spread if there are infected plants out there, it will spread that is for certain."
The Northern Territory's Chief Plant Health Officer, Sarah Corcoran, said there were no plans to destroy plants outside of the infected properties.
"At this stage we are undertaking an agreed national response plan and that response plan is defining our activity over the next six months," she said.
"Importantly we have to delimit the disease and that means working through areas methodically, following up on traces in terms of the movement of plants and conducting surveillance of those sites so that we can establish where we think the disease is and from that point we will make decisions.
"There would have to be some very strong scientific evidence to make us look at the strategy we're using and adjust it."
Concern infected plants have moved interstate
Interstate growers such as Mr Pressler have expressed concern that the canker may not be contained within the Top End.
"My knowledge is that there has been substantial quantities of citrus plants exported out of the Territory from the infected nursery and into New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia [the three biggest citrus producing states in Australia]," he said.
The NT Department of Primary Industry and Resources has confirmed potentially thousands of plants from infected nurseries, had travelled interstate.
Ms Corcoran said the department was still trying to determine how many plants had moved across state borders.
"It varies from state to state, so it depends how far back you go in terms of the plant movements," she said.
"I understand a figure of approximately 3,000 plants are being followed up through those jurisdictions."
