Home > Famines and Crop Destruction, Pestilence > New Zealand: Airborne Kiwifruit Disease Spreads Beyond Contamination Zone

New Zealand: Airborne Kiwifruit Disease Spreads Beyond Contamination Zone

08/12/2011 Leave a comment Go to comments

By Tony Field – “The kiwifruit vine-killing disease PSA has spread beyond the initial contamination zone.

Pseudomonas syringae pv. Actinidiae has been found in 19 more properties in Te Puke and has spread to two vineyards in the previously-unaffected Tauranga region.

It has put more urgency on the research that is underway to combat the disease.

The scientists at Plant and Food Research are part of an international effort to develop new varieties of kiwifruit that are more resistant to PSA but that will take years, so for now they have more immediate goals.

Doctor Bruce Campbell says they are trying to buy time for the industry.

‘[What] we are doing right now is testing products that can be applied in orchards this coming season to slow the spread of the disease.’

170 orchards now have the more serious PSA strand of the disease.

John Burke of Kiwifruit Vine Health says the disease is airborne and is spread through weather events.

‘We have had weather over the summer period, and late autumn, that is not conducive to holding the disease.'” Read more.

Categories: Famines and Crop Destruction, Pestilence
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