Skip to main content Skip to main navigation Skip to search
Home

Top navigation main

  • News & media
  • Jobs
  • Ministers
  • Contact us
Main menu

AWE Main

  • Agriculture and land
    Agriculture and land Building stronger and more sustainable agriculture, fisheries, forestry and land care.
    • Animal health
    • Climate change and agriculture
    • Drought, disaster and rural support
    • Farming, food and drought
    • Fisheries
    • Forestry
    • Levies and charges on agricultural products
    • Mouse infestation advice
    • Plant health
    Xylella

    Protect against unwanted plant pests

    Our biosecurity system helps protects us. Everyone has a role in supporting our biosecurity system.

    Find out more

  • Biosecurity and trade
    Biosecurity and trade
    • Aircraft, vessels and military
    • Biosecurity policy
    • Cats and dogs
    • Exporting
    • Importing
    • Pests, diseases and weeds
    • Public awareness and education
    • Trade and market access
    • Travelling or sending goods to Australia
    • Report a concern
    Brown marmorated stink bug

    BMSB Seasonal Measures

    Australia has strengthened seasonal measures to manage the risk of BMSB.

    View our seasonal measures

  • Science and research
    Science and research Undertaking research and collecting data to support informed decisions and policies.
    • Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES)
    • Plant Innovation Centre
    Abares

    ABARES Insights

    Get 'snapshots’ of agricultural, forestry and fisheries industries, or analysis of key issues.

    Find out more

  • About us
    About us We enhance our agricultural industries and trade, and manage the threat of biosecurity risks to Australia.
    • Accountability and reporting
    • Assistance, grants and tenders
    • Contact us
    • Fees and charges
    • News and media
    • Our commitment to you
    • Payments
    • People and jobs
    • Publications
    • What we do
    • Who we are
    Budget 2025-26

    Budget 2025-26

    The 2025–26 Portfolio Budget Statements were released on 25 March 2025.

    Find out more

  • Online services
    Online services We do business with you using online platforms. This makes it easier for you to meet your legal requirements.
Department of Agriculture

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Biosecurity and trade
  3. Pests, diseases and weeds
  4. Plant pests and diseases
  5. Identify priority plant pests and diseases
  6. Karnal bunt

Sidebar first - Pests diseases weeds

  • Plant pests and diseases
    • National action plans
    • Banana phytoplasma diseases
    • Barley stripe rust (exotic strains)
    • Bees (Apis spp.) (exotic species)
    • Begomoviruses and vectors (exotic strains and species)
    • Blood disease and moko disease of banana
    • Bursaphelenchus spp. and exotic sawyer beetle vectors
    • ‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’ complex
    • Citrus canker
    • Dutch elm disease
    • Fire blight
    • Fruit flies (exotic)
    • Grape phylloxera
    • Grapevine leaf rust
    • Huanglongbing and vectors
    • Invasive snails (exotic species)
    • Karnal bunt
    • Khapra beetle
      • Urgent actions to protect against khapra beetle
        • Measures for plant products under the khapra beetle urgent actions
        • Measures for sea containers under the khapra beetle urgent actions
        • Measures for seeds for sowing under the Khapra beetle urgent actions
      • Khapra beetle in imported goods
      • Khapra beetle bulletin
      • The khapra beetle story
    • Longhorn beetles (Anoplophora spp.) (exotic species)
    • Mites of bees (Apis spp.)
    • Myrtle (eucalyptus) rust (exotic strains)
    • Panama disease
    • Phytoplasmas 16Srl group
    • Pine pitch canker
    • Plum pox virus
    • Potato cyst nematode (exotic strains)
    • Potato late blight (exotic strains)
    • Southern armyworm
    • Spongy moth
    • Spotted lanternfly
    • Spotted wing drosophila
    • Stem borers of sugarcane and cereals (Chilo spp.) (exotic species)
    • Stink bugs
    • Sudden oak death (airborne Phytophthora spp.)
    • Texas root rot
    • Tobamoviruses (exotic strains)
    • Ug99 wheat stem rust
    • Xylella and exotic vectors
      • International Symposium on Xylella fastidiosa

Karnal bunt

PLANT PEST

Close-up of brown, oval shaped wheat grains with cracks, dark brown blotches and white hairs on a black background.
Grains of wheat infected with Karnal bunt
L.A. Castlebury USDA-ARS SBML, PaDIL.

Karnal bunt

Exotic to Australia

Features: A fungal disease that causes broken hollow (bunted) grain, powdery masses of dark spores, and a strong fishy odour

Where it's from: India originally, but now also Afghanistan, Brazil, India, Iran, Iraq, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, South Africa and United States

How it spreads: Spores spread easily on infected wheat seeds, soil, agricultural products, clothing, machinery and on the wind

At risk: Wheat, durum wheat, triticale

Report it

Keep it out

Karnal bunt (also called partial bunt) is caused by the fungus Tilletia indica which infects grains at flowering. It reduces grain quality through the production of masses of powdery spores that discolour the grain and grain products. It is recognised by a fishy smell which taints the grain.

The name comes from the city in India, Karnal, where the disease was first identified. Unlike other bunt diseases, only some grains are affected on each wheat ear.

If Karnal bunt made it to Australia, it would have a major economic impact—over 45 international markets would reject our grains and grain prices would plummet.

The fungus would be almost impossible to eradicate once here since its spores can persist in soil for up to four years and they can be carried over long distances by wind.

Importing goods

To keep Karnal bunt out of Australia, never ignore Australia’s strict biosecurity rules.

Import shipments may need to be treated and certified, so before you import, check our Biosecurity Import Conditions system (BICON).

What to look for

Grain that:

  • has a blackened and sooty appearance
  • gives off a fishy smell
  • crushes in hand producing a greasy black powder.
An ear of wheat with some of the grains infected with Karnal bunt. Ruben Duran, Washington State University, Bugwood.org
A green grass-like ear of wheat with long thin hairlike structures coming off at an angle, on a pale blue background
Bunted wheat grains. Gerald Holmes, California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, Bugwood.org
A close up of brown wheat grains with black splotches in a glass test tube on a brown surface.

Where to look

Crops that can be affected:

  • wheat
  • durum wheat
  • triticale.

Importers

Infested grain or imported agricultural equipment that is contaminated with infested grain pose the greatest risk of Karnal bunt making it to Australia.

Growers and grain handlers

  • Since only a few grains in each wheat head are infected, it is easiest to detect symptoms after the grain has been harvested.
  • Check harvested grain regularly.
  • Note any unpleasant or fishy smell.
  • Look for discoloured grey or black seeds.

What to do

If you think you’ve found Karnal bunt in grain:

  • do not disturb the infested produce (this may be as simple as closing the doors on a shipping container or sealing a silo)
  • take a photo.
  • collect a sample, if possible to do so without disturbing the infested produce.

Report it

Seen something unusual? Report it. Even if you’re not sure.

Report it without delay

Read the detail

  • Plant Health Australia: Karnal bunt fact sheet
  • Grains Farm Biosecurity Program

General enquiries

Call 1800 900 090

Contact us online

Report a biosecurity concern

Thanks for your feedback.
Thanks! Your feedback has been submitted.

We aren't able to respond to your individual comments or questions.
To contact us directly phone us or submit an online inquiry

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Please verify that you are not a robot.

Skip
Page last updated: 28 March 2025

We acknowledge the continuous connection of First Nations Traditional Owners and Custodians to the lands, seas and waters of Australia. We recognise their care for and cultivation of Country. We pay respect to Elders past and present, and recognise their knowledge and contribution to the productivity, innovation and sustainability of Australia’s agriculture, fisheries and forestry industries.

Artwork: Protecting our Country, Growing our Future
© Amy Allerton, contemporary Aboriginal Artist of the Gumbaynggirr, Bundjalung and Gamilaroi nations.

Footer

  • Contact us
  • Accessibility
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy
  • FOI

© Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

Facebook X LinkedIn Instagram