No signs of fruit fly in New Zealand
WELLINGTON: After nearly a yearlong, $18 million operation, New Zealand has once again been declared free of the serious pest species, Queensland fruit fly.
A biosecurity response was triggered in the Auckland suburb of Northcote in February 2019, after a Queensland fruit fly was detected in the area.
The fly is a serious pest that could harm a range of fruit crops in New Zealand.
Biosecurity New Zealand spokes woman Cath Duthie said during the operation nearly 6000 homes were put under controls restricting the movement of certain produce and one and ahalf tonnes of fruit collected from the area was inspected.
She said there had not been any detections in the past six months and it had now ended its fruit fly operation.
‘‘It’s now been six months since a fly was last trapped in the area, and this, along with an intensive baiting programme throughout the spring and the inspection of hundreds of kilos of fruit without a find, has given us confidence there is currently no breeding population of the Queensland fruit fly in Northcote,’’ she said. ‘‘However our nationwide routine surveillance will continue with our system of 7800 fruit fly traps spread across the country and more than 4600 of these in the Auckland area. These traps are set for three exotic fruit fly species of concern.
The Queensland fruit fly, Mediterranean fruit fly and Oriental fruit flies.’’
Dr Duthie said the operation had been a collaborative effort between Biosecurity New Zealand, horticulture industry partners, AsureQuality (MPI’s operations provider), a number of local authorities and the community.
It was the second fully costshared biosecurity response under the Government Industry Agreement, she said.