A spike in the number of Psa infected orchards in the region this week is a reporting issue not due to a new outbreak of the vine killing disease reports Kiwifruit Vine Health.

The KVH Psa bulletin released on Thursday reports 21 new Psa-V infections in the Bay of Plenty, one in Katikati, one in Tauranga West; and 19 in Te Puke.

New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated chairman Peter Ombler looks at kiwifruit vines.

A note states the noticeable increase of Psa-V identifications in the Te Puke region is a result of KVH identifying and following up Kiwifruit Property Identification Numbers in the Te Puke area that had not previously reported Psa-V infection.

'It's just that we identified some orchards in Te Puke that still hadn't reported, so we do a bit of a campaign with the packhouses to get out there and let us know what the status of the orchards are,” says KVH communication co-ordinator Lara Harrison.

'In the past we've relied on packhouses and growers to report their stats to us. So that's the reason for the rise in the stats. It's not really that progression has moved a whole lot in the last week or anything.

'We've just had a handful of orchards in Te Puke that have not reported basically.”

KVH doesn't pay for Psa-V testing in Te Puke anymore as it is so widespread.

'We will just get a packhouse representative to go out and do a Psa visual verification. That may be the reason there's been a slow down on reporting. The message is to keep monitoring and keep reporting to us.

'It is coming up harvest season, one of the busiest seasons for the kiwifruit industry. People just need reminding every now and then.”

Former New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated chairman Peter Ombler says when the weather is hot and dry you see very little movement in Psa-V.

'We've seen very little movement spread of PSA in recent times, so any spike in the number of orchards being reported will be a monitoring issue, rather than a disease spreading issue,” says Peter.

'So suddenly there will be a bit of a spike because there's been some more looked at that haven't previously been looked at that have a Psa-V infection. If you had looked three weeks ago you would probably have found the same thing.

'Where we expect to see a spike in Psa-V generally from a disease point of view is in autumn and spring, when the weather gets colder and wetter. That's when you tend to see the thing move.”

Orchards with Psa-V identified 2073

Ha on affected orchards 9649

Percentage of hectares on affected orchards 70

A statistics update is on the KVH website www.kvh.org.nz/statistics.