War on fruit flies presses ahead

BIOSECURITY Tasmania remains confident fruit fly can still be eradicated despite the discovery of larvae in fruit bought in the south of the state this week.

General manager Lloyd Klumpp said the latest discovery of fruit fly larvae in a grapefruit bought from a local shop after being sourced from Victoria was a “not unusual event” and it did not constitute a fresh outbreak.

“We get two or three of those post border detections every year,’’ he said.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that we had a fruit fly outbreak it would be business as usual for us.”

Mr Klumpp said the incident involving the grapefruit “purchased by a member of the public, taken home and put in the fruit bowl on the kitchen bench” highlighted the importance of ordinary Tasmanians whose vigilance served as last line of defence.

“When they cut it open they found the larvae and they reported it directly to us,” he said. “That vigilance, that awareness and that proactivity in actually notifying us is very much appreciated.”

“The reality is that fumi- gation is not 100 per cent effective 100 per cent of the time.

Mr Klummp said it was possible a similar occurrence could have led to the northern Tasmanian outbreak but he did not believe that to be the case.

“The national system has struggled in the face of the massively increased pest pressure that we have, so we need to go back and have a look at that national system and modify it, given the pressures that we are under,” he said.

Mr Klumpp believes Tasmania’s fruit fly eradication effort is “going well”.

“It is not unusual to continue to see flies. We would be a lot more concerned if we were finding flies outside those (Devonport and George Town) control areas,’’ he said.

Mr Klump said Biosecurity Tasmania would not be relying on the “coolness of winter” to complete the pest’s eradication.

“There’s no doubt that it will help but ... we have an eradication program that has been developed nationally. We will use that as the main basis for the eradication of the fly,” he said.

Primary Industries Minister Sarah Courtney said she had contacted the Victorian Agriculture minister asking for a “please explain’’ in relation to the grapefruit incident.

“The fruit which transited through Victoria to Tasmania was certified treated and so we are naturally very concerned how this has happened,” Ms Courtney said.

She said the government was determined to eradicate fruit fly and about 100 staff were working alongside stakeholders and industry representatives.

Biosecurity’s Lloyd Klumpp