The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported late last week that the issue was whether viruses found in 25 per cent of recent supermarket samples of imported raw prawn meat could contaminate Australia's wild-prawn and farm-prawn industries, worth 600 million Australian dollars (Bt16.82 billion) a year.

The Queensland Seafood Industry Association's Neil

Green fears Thailand will use last Friday's talks with Biosecurity Australia to have the import ban lifted.

"As long as the prawns are cooked, they do not carry the virus, and it doesn't hurt us, so there's the out for the government: tell them to bring them all in cooked," he said.

Seafood Importers' Association chairman Harry Peters said leading marine epidemiologists could find no disease threat from white spot or taura viruses.

"The concerns that frozen raw prawns could spread diseases are not supported by science or by worldwide experience," he said.

Biosecurity Australia's decision is due tomorrow.