AVOCADOS - Biosecurity New Zealand

93 HORTICULTUREFruit fly surveillanceprogramme reviewNew Zealand has a successful fruit fl y surveillance programme that protects the horticulture industryagainst these harmful pests. MAF Biosecurity New Zealand (MAFBNZ) believes it can be even better, and isplanning to review the surveillance programme over the next year.New Zealand is fortunate to befree of economicallyimportant species of fruit fly.The fruit fly surveillance programmehas been running since the 1970s, andprovides assurance of New Zealand’sfreedom from fruit flies. Surveillanceserves a dual purpose – to provideconfidence to our trading partnersthat New Zealand is fruit fly-free, andto give us an early warning of fruit flyincursions so as to facilitateeradication.The fruit fly surveillance programmeconsists of seasonal monitoring forthe presence of fruit fly through theuse of lure traps placed throughoutNew Zealand. It is an effectiveprogramme, and fruit flies have beendetected. However, the programmehas not undergone a thorough reviewsince 1989, and a lot of informationhas been generated since then thathas the potential to improve thetechnical and operationalmanagement of the programme.MAFBNZ is planning to do a reviewof the programme in the coming year,involving the horticulture industryand fruit fly experts, both withinMAFBNZ and externally.The overall objectives of the revieware to identify improvements thatcould be made to the effectivenessand efficiency of the programme. Thereview might also be used to identifygaps in information required tooptimise the programme, includingidentifying research that could beundertaken to bridge these gaps.One key area for review is theeffectiveness of the current trappinggrid to ensure the design is alignedtemporally and spatially to the siteswhere fruit flies could establish, andthat it is targeting the most high-riskspecies. MAFBNZ will also aim toreview the current fruit fly trappingprotocols to ensure the programme isusing the most efficient and up-todatemethods.MAFBNZ would also like to developan objective way to measure theeffectiveness of the fruit flyCurrent fruit fly trapping locations.surveillance programme. This wouldhelp to provide confidence in NewZealand’s status as a country free offruit flies, and to measure thecontribution of surveillance activities,compared with pre-border or borderactivities. Once the review iscomplete, MAFBNZ expects such ameasure would provide confidencethat the programme has become moreefficient.8 MAF BIOSECURITY NEW ZEALAND