Displaying items by tag: Biosecurity

INVESTIGATIONS INTO how a single fruit fly arrived in Whangarei must continue after the local port ruled out being the source, Labour's Primary Industries spokesman Damien O'Connor says.

ALMOST 200 traps in Whangarei have detected no more Queensland fruit fly.

THE MINISTRY FOR Primary Industries (MPI) is investigating a find of a single male Queensland fruit fly in a surveillance trap in Whangarei.

IT MAY BE the festive season, but Auckland biosecurity staff were gobsmacked to find a live Christmas tree coming through the x-ray machine at the International Mail Centre in Auckland this week.

HORTICULTURE NEW ZEALAND believes this country's ability to control regional biosecurity risk is woeful and there are few signs of any willingness to improve.

Figures just released show New Zealand's border protection is good, but still does not measure up to the standard the New Zealand horticulture industry, and the Government, expect.

New Zealand's border inspection system is getting a new fleet of x-ray machines.

CIRCUS ELEPHANTS are believed to have been indirectly responsible for a large outbreak near Hamilton of the notorious pest plant alligator weed which can quickly take over pasture.

It is "inbelievable" that it took six weeks to identify a limb found in palm kernel expeller (PKE) came from a New Zealand sheep, says Labour's biosecurity and primary industries spokesperson Damien O'Connor says.

Genetic testing has shown that the animal limb found by a Bay of Plenty farmer in some PKE is from a sheep, not an exotic goat or deer.