MAF Biodiversity director Barry O'Neil says the Te Puke orchards currently under biosecurity controls are only producers of Gold kiwifruit.
At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Zespri and MAF officials announced the five orchards being monitored for Psa have a combined canopy size of just over 100 hectares and are within a 10 kilometre radius near Te Puke.
MAF Biodiversity New Zealand director general Barry O'Neil with Zespri CEO Lain Jager and Plant and Food Research business manager Stuart Kay. See video below of Lain talking about how the Psa arrived in New Zealand and where exactly it has been found.
Zespri CEO Lain Jager says the company's grower contact centre has received a total of 135 emails about Psa.
Of those emails, 78 had accompanying photos showing Psa symptoms and 57 with photos showing the orchard is clear of the bacteria.
A total of 20 orchards are being investigated by MAF staff.
Lain says the main objective is to eradicate Psa from New Zealand.
'As the information flows in and we find out how widespread Psa is in New Zealand, it will become clear if eradication is an option.”
He was unsure if eradication was technically possible or the costs involved.
'If we can not eradicate, our second option is to contain it.”
MAF experts are consulting with officials in Italy over the use of copper spraying, which was scheduled to start on the infected orchards on Thursday but later postponed.
'The application of any spray is very specific to the time of the year so we are just taking a little bit longer to make sure we are doing the right thing.”
MAF officials hope to know by Thursday night if copper spraying will go ahead.
A total of 300 samples have been sent from kiwifruit orchards to a containment laboratory in Auckland.
Once at the lab, testing looks at the DNA of the bacteria involved.
Barry O'Neil says it takes 24-36 hours for a sample to get from an orchard to the Auckland lab and then tested.
'The lab test is the definitive test we are using to determine if it has Psa.”
Barry says samples from nine orchards would have arrived at the Auckland lab by Friday, growing to 40 samples by Saturday and 70 by Sunday.
4 comments
kapa
Posted on 11-11-2010 17:10 | By kapa
So not only have we all been affected by the terrible Hicane, now they may be going to spray copper spray
kiwi fruit
Posted on 12-11-2010 16:34 | By Glen Clova
I didn't think it would take long for the anti spray brigade to start moaning. One in particular is so negative in his views that he wont be happy till we have no rural fruit farming which keeps thousands employed in and around The Bay of Plenty.
kiwi fruit spraying
Posted on 12-11-2010 16:38 | By Glen Clova
Yes if it will save the industry and the thousands of jobs tied up in Kiwifruit go for it.
Copper Spray
Posted on 13-11-2010 15:37 | By mr mizprint
Before the anti-spray, organic greenies start banging on about copper please be informed about copper spray (yes it's a heavy metal). Copper is actually certified for use in organics. Just like rhubarb leaf spray is certified for organic use, rhubarb leaf is great at killing insects, it's also great at killing people. Dont just automatically assume that organics sprays are safe & conventional sprays are evil, it's just not as simple as that.
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