[(Title)] Prawns carrying white spot virus discovered in Queensland supermarkets

A highly destructive virus has again been detected in supermarket prawns despite tightened import restrictions introduced after a disease outbreak decimated south-east Queensland's prawn farming industry.

尽管疾病爆发严重破坏了昆士兰东南部虾养殖业后，对进口实行更严格的限制，但在超市虾中再次发现具有高度破坏性的病毒。

The shock results come as a Four Corners investigation reveals how some ruthless seafood importers have been deliberately evading Australia's biosecurity defences in a hunt for profit,

四角调查公司得出的令人震惊的结果，揭示了一些残忍的海鲜进口商为追求利润故意逃避澳大利亚的生物安全防护。

exploiting a quarantine regime identified as "remarkably naive" in a top-level inquiry.

利用在高级别调查中被确定为"极其天真"的检疫制度。

The revelations raise troubling questions about the nature of Australia's preparedness to combat a slew of exotic diseases and pests that have the potential to wreak carnage on the economy.

此番披露引起了令人不安的问题，即澳大利亚应对大量外来疾病和病虫害的准备程度如何，这些疾病和病虫害有可能给经济造成杀戮。

Brian Jones, former adviser to the Inspector-General of Biosecurity, said the incursion of white spot disease in 2016 "won't be the last".

前生物安全监察长顾问布莱恩琼斯说，2016年白斑病的入侵“不会是最后一次”。

"The Government is not fulfilling its duty to protect the border," he said.

他说：“政府没有履行其保护边界的义务。”

In the face of soaring international trade, scientists, industry executives and former government officials have told Four Corners that Australia's biosecurity defences have been simply inadequate.

面对国际贸易飙升，科学家、行业高管和前政府官员告诉四角调查公司，澳大利亚的生物安全防护措施根本不够充分。

In a scathing review Mr Jones co-authored, the Inspector-General found the devastating outbreak of white spot was "a major failure of Australia's biosecurity system".

在琼斯先生共同撰写的严厉审查报告中，监察长发现白斑的破坏性爆发是“澳大利亚生物安全系统的一次重大失败”。

Critical to this failure was a policy decision that allowed seafood importers to unpack shipping containers into cold stores unsupervised by any government officials.

这一失败的关键在于一项政策决定，允许海产食品进口商将集装箱拆解到不受任何政府官员监督的冷品仓库。

The policy afforded rogue players days and sometimes weeks to disguise dodgy consignments from inspectors, including by substituting diseased prawns for clean ones.

这项政策为无良商家提供了几天，有时甚至几个星期的时间来掩饰检查员的托运货物，包括用生病的小猪代替干净的小猪。

The Inspector-General found the department had placed "too much trust in importers to do the right thing".

监察主任发现，该部门对"进口商过于信任，以至于不能做正确的事情"。

"The department demonstrated a remarkable level of naivety about the potential for importers to wilfully circumvent import conditions for any class of prawns that required viral testing."

"海关发现，进口商有可能故意绕过任何需要病毒测试的虾的进口条件，这非常幼稚。

The department conceded to Four Corners there were "significant shortcomings in its handling of this issue", and insisted it had "taken substantial action to address them".

该部门向四角公司承认，在处理这个问题方面"存在严重缺陷"，并坚持认为，该部已经"采取了实质性行动解决这些问题"。

Import conditions were tightened midway through last year after a six-month trade suspension was lifted.

去年年中，取消6个月的贸易暂停令后，进口条件收紧。

As of July 2017, no containers could be opened except by biosecurity officers.

截至2017年7月，除生物安全官员外，任何集装箱不得打开。

Yet the virus — which poses no harm to humans — has reared its head again.

但是,这种对人类没有危害的病毒，再次抬头了.

In April, Queensland officials identified the virus in the wild, at locations in the northern reaches of Moreton Bay.

4月，昆士兰州官员在莫雷顿湾北部各处查明了野生环境中的病毒。

Then, in late May, the Department of Agriculture quietly released a note that said 12 consignments of prawns — stopped at the wharves under the new "enhanced" regime — had tested positive for the disease.

然后，农业部在5月下旬悄悄发布了一份说明，称在新的“增强”制度，在码头拦截了12批虾，对该病检测为阳性。

Now, Four Corners can reveal the virus is still getting past the department's frontline.

现在,死角公司可以证明病毒仍在越过该部门的前线。

Testing conducted for the program found traces of the virus present in 30 per cent of prawn samples purchased from a range of supermarket outlets in the south-east Queensland area.

针对该方案进行的测试发现，在昆士兰东南部地区从一系列超市店购买的30%虾样本中存在病毒痕迹。

The samples were examined by University of the Sunshine Coast professor Wayne Knibb, an expert in the genetics of marine animals. He tested green prawns from 10 major retail outlets.

这些样本由阳光海岸大学教授Wayne Knibb接受海洋动物遗传学专家检验，他测试了10个主要零售渠道的绿虾。

"We found about a third of the material that we looked had evidence of white spot DNA in it," he said.

他说：“我们发现，我们观察到的大约三分之一的材料中含有斑点DNA的证据。

Professor Knibb's testing has been independently verified by a separate laboratory.

Knibb教授的测试已经由一个独立的实验室独立验证.

"Clearly, if we can find in a very limited sample 30 per cent of samples that were in the history connected or in contact with the virus, then clearly we're playing with fire here," he said.

他说：“很显然，如果我们可以在一个非常有限的样本中找到30%的与病毒有关或接触的病例，那么很明显，我们在这里正在玩火。”

"We have a route of a virus that is a particularly dangerous virus and shown worldwide just how destructive it can be. It's damaged whole national economies, and it's cost billions of dollars."

"我们有一种病毒传播途径，这种病毒是一种特别危险的病毒，它在全世界表现出来的破坏力，它损害了整个国家的经济，而且耗资数十亿美元"。

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud and Daryl Quinlivan, the secretary of the Department of Agriculture, both declined to be interviewed by Four Corners.

农业部长戴维·利特列豪德和农业部秘书达丽尔·昆利文都拒绝接受四角公司的采访。

In a statement, a spokesman said the department "has been very clear that its enhanced import conditions do not guarantee that prawns with WSSV [white spot virus] will never be imported into Australia".

在一份声明中，一位发言人表示，海关“非常清楚其强化的进口条件并不能保证携带WSSV（白点病毒）的虾永远不会被输入澳大利亚”。

"The conditions are designed to reduce the biosecurity risk to a level that is very low, but not zero," the statement read.

声明称：“这些条件旨在将生物安保风险降低到非常低的水平，但不是零。”

The department said that in the wake of the disaster it established "new processes" which ensured "all arrangements meet appropriate standards of governance, risk management and assurance".

该部表示，灾害发生后，该部制定了"新程序"，确保"所有安排都符合管理、风险管理和保证的适当标准"。

The prawn farming industry has been bitterly disappointed by the Federal Government's failure to heed its warnings that white spot was highly likely to be entering Australia in imported prawns.

由于联邦政府没有听取其警告，白点病毒很有可能进入澳大利亚进口虾，这令大虾养殖业极为失望。

In fact, the Government had also been warned for years by importers themselves who had been ruthlessly undercut on price.

事实上，多年来政府也受到进口商本身的警告，这些进口商一直在无情地降低价格。

Investigators at the department were tipped off about smuggling operations as far back as 2012, prompting two secret operations targeting seafood importers.

该省的调查人员早在2012年就获悉走私活动的情况，这引发了针对海产食品进口商的两次秘密行动。

By midway through 2016, their inquiries were turning up alarming evidence of the deliberate circumvention of Australia's biosecurity defences.

到2016年年中，他们的调查得出了令人震惊的证据，表明澳大利亚故意绕过生物安保防御。

Viral tests commissioned by investigators found more than 85 per cent of their retail samples were positive for the disease.

调查人员委托进行的病毒检测发现，其零售样本中有85%以上是阳性。

By the end of last year, the department was taking action against the nine seafood companies responsible for 70 percent of all raw prawns imported into Australia in 2016.

截至去年年底，海关正对九家海鲜公司采取行动，这些公司占2016年进口到澳大利亚的所有生虾的70%。

Only one has so far been charged. EB Ocean, a seafood importer based in Melbourne, faces three charges to be heard in 2019. Two of its employees have been charged with hindering the Government's investigation. All have pleaded not guilty.

总部设在墨尔本的海产食品进口商EB Oce被控在2019年听证三项指控，其中两名雇员被控妨碍政府的调查，均未认罪。