A biosecurity operation is underway in Auckland’s Papatoetoe after a single male Oriental fruit fly was discovered in a surveillance trap in a suburban backyard.
Biosecurity New Zealand commissioner Mike Inglis said the fruit fly poses no human health risk, but there would be an economic cost to the horticulture industry if it were allowed to establish here.
“Checks of the other 187 traps in the Papatoetoe/Māngere area did not find any fruit flies in them,” he said.
“However, our previous experience with the successful eradication of several different types of fruit fly is that we might find other insects, so it is important we move quickly, look for any others and eradicate them.”
He said the capture of a single male does not mean we have an outbreak. However, while we do our checks for any other fruit flies, we need community help to prevent any possible spread.
As a precautionary measure, Inglis said legal restrictions would be put in place on the movement of fruit and vegetables out of the area where the fruit fly was found.
“We will be ramping up trapping and testing, with daily checks in a 200-metre zone from the original find and three daily testing in a second zone out to 1500m,” Inglis said.
There have been 12 incursions of different fruit fly in Auckland and Northland since 1996, and all have been successfully eradicated.
Inglis said the latest find demonstrates the benefit and effectiveness of MPI’s lure-based surveillance trapping network of 7878 traps and the biosecurity system.
“Instructions about these controls and the exact area affected will be issued by midday Sunday once we have completed an initial investigation. In the meantime, we ask that people who live and work in the suburb not take any whole fresh fruit and vegetables out of your property.”
Inglis said Biosecurity New Zealand has among the strictest controls in the world for the importation of fruit and checks at the border.
The most likely way that fruit flies can arrive in New Zealand is on fresh fruit and vegetables.