Wednesday, 06 March 2019 15:51

More fruit flies discovered

Written by 
Biosecurity New Zealand spokesperson Dr Catherine Duthie and Ag Minister Damien O'Connor at Northcote. Biosecurity New Zealand spokesperson Dr Catherine Duthie and Ag Minister Damien O'Connor at Northcote.

More fruit flies have been found in Auckland. 

Biosecurity NZ confirmed that a fourth male Queensland fruit fly has been found in Northcote and another facialis fruit fly has been found in Ōtara.

The Northcote find is approximately 80 metres inside the current Zone A and no further restrictions on the movement of fruit and vegetables are required in the suburb.  

“Our extensive surveillance programme is continuing including trapping, visual inspection of backyard gardens and fruit trees, and collection and laboratory examination of fallen fruit,” says Biosecurity New Zealand spokesperson Dr Catherine Duthie. 

“To date we have cut and examined around 300kg of fruit in our mobile laboratory, which was gathered from Zone A backyards on the North Shore and almost 500kg in Otara. We have yet to find any fruit fly larvae.” 

The Ōtarafind is 630 metres to the north of the last find inside the current Zone B. Another Zone A will be established in Ōtara, which will mean restrictions on a different area. The current Zone B is unchanged.  

Duthies urged people living in Ōtarato check if they are living in either zone or what this means for them. 

“We will be working closely with the local community to get this information out to people,” she says.

‘Similar controls on the movement of export fruit to those put in place in Northcote will be established in Ōtara. We are working with our horticulture industry partners and expect this to have little, if any, practical impact on fruit exports.”

The instructions for residents inside the Northcote Controlled Areas remain the same.  

There have been no further finds of Queensland fruit fly in Devonport since the only find there on February 14, 2019.  

“Given the proximity of Devonport to Northcote we will reconsider next week whether we need to continue with movement controls in Devonport,” says Duthie. 

"We are very grateful for the support all communities affected by the fruit fly detections have given us.” 

Detailed maps of the controlled areas and a full description of the boundaries, and full information about the rules are at  biosecurity.govt.nz/fruitfly

More like this

Featured

Australia develops first local mRNA FMD vaccine

Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.

NZ household food waste falls again

Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.

Editorial: No joking matter

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.

National

Machinery & Products

Tech might take time

Agritech Unleashed – a one-day event held recently at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton – focused on technology as an ‘enabler’…

John Deere acquires GUSS Automation

John Deere has announced the full acquisition of GUSS Automation, LLC, a globally recognised leader in supervised high-value crop autonomy,…

Fencing excellence celebrated

The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards,…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

A step too far

OPINION: For years, the ironically named Dr Mike Joy has used his position at Victoria University to wage an activist-style…

Save us from SAFE

OPINION: A mate of yours truly has had an absolute gutsful of the activist group SAFE.

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter