New Zealand’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) is reviewing its rules governing importation of plant material as part of its investigations into how kiwifruit vine disease Psa entered the country.
New research carried out by the ministry has shown that live Psa bacteria can be found in kiwifruit pollen taken from closed flowers.
Regulations at the time of the outbreak allowed pollen to be imported into the country provided it was taken from inside closed flowers.
A MAF media release stated pollen imports were suspended at the time of the outbreak as it was suspected as a possible vector for the disease. It added, however, that at that time there was no internationally published science showing pollen was able to spread Psa.
MAF director general Wayne McNee said it was too early to link imported pollen to the outbreak.
'Given the new information that has emerged on the potential for pollen to spread the disease, I want to review our processes for assessing risk, and incorporating changing science,” he said. “We still cannot categorically say that Psa in pollen can infect healthy vines – there's more work to be done to prove that – so we still cannot definitively say that pollen was the way that Psa entered New Zealand.”
He added that MAF has looked into a number of ways the bacterium could have entered New Zealand and has produced a report summarising the results of those investigations.
'The report does not identify a definite means of introduction, but does find there are a number of potential pathways, including people, equipment, and pollen,” he said.
Mr McNee added that the independent review would look at the current importing rules, how they were developed, the decision making around them, and what should happen in future.
'I want to be confident that we are doing absolutely everything we can to manage biosecurity risk around products imported to New Zealand. If there are improvements we can make to the way we set standards then I want to identify and implement them.'
The country’s lucrative kiwifruit industry has been heavily impacted by the disease, with the New Zealand Herald reporting this week that the value of next year’s exports could decrease by as much as one quarter.
According to the media release, the import regulation review had been requested by the kiwifruit industry.
The Psa Pathway tracing report can be foundhere.
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