Queensland's $600 million banana industry has been rocked by a second outbreak of the devastating Panama disease.
A farm near Mareeba, west of Cairns, has tested positive for the fungus and will be quarantined while state biosecurity officers take more samples.
"The entire farm will be surveyed and any infected plants that are detected will be destroyed," chief biosecurity officer Dr Jim Thompson said.
The farm is about 200km northwest of a Tully farm, where the disease was first detected in March.
Authorities have destroyed 16,000 banana plants at the Tully farm in an effort to stop the spread of the soil-borne Panama TR4 disease.
"The disease takes a number of years to be expressed on properties," Dr Thompson said.
"The connection that we are looking at may well have occurred some time ago before we were aware of this.
"At this point we don't know if the first farm in Tully was the original site or this one may have been."
He said there was a chance more farms might be affected.
"Soil, plant material and water are the main sources of infections from one place to another, so it's very difficult to put up boundaries and be able to stop," Dr Thompson said.
Panama disease Tropical Race 4 is a soil-borne fungus that affects the plants by entering through the roots.
It was not transferred to the fruit, which could still be eaten, Dr Thompson said.
Australian Banana Growers Council chief executive Jim Pekin said growers were on the alert and raising any concerns with authorities.
"The industry is very concerned about this second find," he said.
"But the positive out of it is that here again another farmer has come forward with a suspect sample.
"Farmers are putting their hand up if they've got a suspect plant."
The fungus also destroyed the Northern Territory's banana industry in the 1990s.
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