All New Zealanders need to be concerned that myrtle rust could spread, says Mark Bateman, MPI’s regional controller.
“If it spreads it could decimate native plants and affect the honey industry, the feijoa industry and export industry,” he says.
It is an ongoing threat that could affect the livelihoods of people in and around the area, Bateman told a farming event in the Kerikeri region.
He told farmers if they saw myrtle rust they should not touch it, but instead photograph and report it, and MPI will do what needs to be done.
“There is a large army of biosecurity officers on the ground -- that large army is you.”
Bateman says myrtle rust found at a nursery in Kerikeri was reported by the nursery owner because he had seen information about it.
“This disease has now set in on Raoul Island and as a consequence we have teams working there; we had been anticipating potential airborne dispersion of the disease for some time,” he says.
“We don’t know if that is the pathway it has come through but we do know this nursery found some on its property so we sent a team in, isolated the property and put a restricted movement notice on it, then mounted a search around the area.
“We searched within a 500m radius of that property and found another sample which has turned out positive. Consequently we extended the search area to 500m around that.
“People are naturally concerned; they are raising issues and we are responding to them. But we don’t want you to think the number of samples we are sending implies the number of findings we are making.
“What it means is we are trying to be vigilant and doing what we need to do to ensure we prevent this disease from spreading.”
Bateman says they had taken samples from hidden regions of the country that could be susceptible to the windborne disease and also were tracking back to people who had visited the nursery.
The MPI response number for myrtle rust is 0800 80 99 66.
