7. Maintaining horticultural security
This category provides information which will assist in developing and implementing policies which help to protect New Zealand's horticultural industries from adverse effects of introduced pests and diseases. In particular, adequate and timely information is needed to develop new import health standards, and exclude and/or manage pests and unwanted organisms. Research activities are likely to include:
- Developing a process for assessing the environmental impacts of newly arrived pests - or pests that could arrive.
- Developing diagnostic keys/techniques to rapidly identify intercepted organisms and/or to accurately define New Zealand's current plant health status (which ultimately contributes to the development of technically justified import health standards).
- Categorising comprehensive commodity pest lists to develop accurate, technically justified import health standards.
- Validating pest-host associations for entry into the Plant Pest Information Network (PPIN) to ensure ready access to current information describing New Zealand's dynamic plant health status.
- Increasing awareness of the pesticide registration process leading to more informed comments of the real hazards associated with pesticides that may be used in pest management in accordance with the Biosecurity Act.
- Assessing the effectiveness of various strategies employed at New Zealand's border to prevent passengers entering New Zealand, inadvertently or otherwise carrying risk goods. This would enable greater emphasis/resources to be directed at those strategies most likely to change the behaviour of those offending.
7.1 MHS 300
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| Programme Goal: | To deliver, using Pest Categorisation Procedure, the categorisation of organisms appearing on pest lists supplied by MAF Regulatory Authority, so that these can be used in import health standards. |
Objective 1
| Objective Title: | Pest categorisation |
| Research Leader: | Dr Richard Baker |
Description:
MAF Regulatory Authority will supply pest lists of no more than 4030 pest species. NZPPC will categorise these organisms. Each pest will be recorded on the form "Record of Pest Category Determination" and the spreadsheet "Summary of criteria for categorisation of pests".
7.2 MHS 302
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| Programme Goal: | To develop and evaluate a pest risk management framework for MAF Regulatory Authority which is consistent with international guidelines, is technically justifiable, allows an appropriate level of protection to be identified, and provides a model for evaluating risk management options and making operational decisions. |
Objective 1
| Objective Title: | Concept of appropriate level of protection |
| Research Leader: | Dr Hugh Bigsby |
Description:
Variations of a technique for combining probability of establishment and economic impact to derive a measurement of "appropriate level of protection" have been proposed, either in prior work on Iso-Risk for MAF Regulatory Authority, or as contained in the New Zealand draft standards for pest risk assessment. Research under this objective will:
- fully develop this model as a tool for pest risk management;
- demonstrate how the approach will provide consistency with international standards; and
- show how it can be used in a trade environment to substantiate quarantine decisions.
Objective 2
| Objective Title: | New Zealand's appropriate level of protection | |
| Research Leader: | Dr Carolyn Whyte |
Description:
The concept of appropriate level of protection developed in Objective 1 will provide a basis for evaluating risk management options which are technically justifiable. Research under this objective will provide a tool for evaluating risk management options by building on the model that is contained in the New Zealand Draft Standard for Pest Risk Assessment.
7.3 MHS 303
| Programme Goal: | To develop a DNA-based method that can rapidly identify selected fruit fly species from immature life stages using minimal material that may be of poor quality. |
Objective 1
| Objective Title: | Tephritid-specific diagnostic protocol | |
| Research Leader: | Dr Karen Armstrong |
Description:
The PCR/RFLP analysis of ribosomal DNA has been determined as a robust and rapid method for discriminating the large majority of fruit fly species of quarantine importance (Operational Research Final Report 1996). Recent work has shown that a specific region of the 18S/ITS1 is the most informative and reliable in terms of diagnostic markers' importance. DNA sequence analysis has also identified a number of potential tephritid-specific PCR priming sites that flank this region (Operational Research Final Report 1997). This objective aims to upgrade the current diagnostic protocol using this smaller DNA region and re-designed primers. Advantages of these modifications are anticipated to be:
- a reduction in time taken to process samples;
- simpler diagnostic patterns to interpret; and
- elimination of ambiguities generated by non-target DNA, (e.g. contaminating fungal, fruit or non-tephritid insect tissue).
Objective 2
| Objective Title: | Diagnostic markets for new species | |
| Research Leader: | Dr Karen Armstrong |
Description:
Of the 31 tephritid species listed on the Biosecurity (Notifiable Organisms) Amendment Order (1997), five remain to be analysed by this molecular technique; namely Bactrocera (Bactrocera) papayae, B.(B.) philippinensis, B. (B.) trivialis, B. (B.) zonata and Anastrepha suspensa. Using the tephritid-specific protocol developed in Objective 1 the research undertaken in this objective will aim to identify diagnostic markers for these species.
7.4 MHS 304
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| Programme Goal: | To develop a multiple entry diagnostic key for identification of winged adult aphids in New Zealand and to determine the feasibility of molecular diagnosis for the identification of immature aphids. |
Objective 1
| Objective Title: | Multiple entry morphometric key |
| Research Leader: | Dr David Teulon |
Description:
A multiple entry diagnostic key for winged aphids will be developed. The key will include non-pest aphids commonly encountered in New Zealand as well as aphids from major horticultural and agricultural crops in New Zealand.
Objective 2
| Objective Title: | Molecular techniques for immature aphid identification |
| Research Leader: | Dr John Marshall |
Description:
The immature stage of four Aphid genera (Acyrthosiphon, Aulacorthum, Rhobodium and Metapolophium) and four species within the genus Acyrthosiphon will be examined to determine the feasibility of developing molecular diagnostic systems needed to identify firstly all genera of aphids and then species present in New Zealand.
7.5 MHS 305
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| Programme Goal: | To revise the reference index to include additional species of vascular plants recorded in New Zealand; establishment of synonymy where possible; validation of scientific names; screening using computer models for weediness potential to provide greater consistency in the criteria for acceptance or otherwise for plant species. |
Objective 1
| Objective Title: | Revision of reference index |
| Research Leader: | Dr Euan Nicol |
Description:
Further development of computer models for the screening species recorded in New Zealand to assess potential weediness of species before addition to reference index. Models developed to date have utilised existing weed lists to develop a score based on published weed histories for the species, genera and families but there are still a substantial number of species recorded in New Zealand that are not included in the reference index.
The proposed models will further refine the parameters used in the earlier work, while introducing an evaluation of some of the key characters used in other screening models such as growth form or habit, climatic match, spininess or toxicity. It is also proposed that the models consider the previous behaviour of genera and species in New Zealand in more detail to develop a better profile of the behaviour of introduced plant species under New Zealand conditions. These proposals should allow a considerable increase in the number of species accepted for the reference index, and also allow some groups to be identified where the introduction of a new species to New Zealand would not require additional screening.
Validation scientific names of new species to be added will be undertaken, and establishment of synonymies for both new and existing species where possible to minimise duplication within the reference index.
A revised and updated reference index with appropriate import status for MAF will be produced.
7.6 MHS 306
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| Programme Goal: | To enhance the usefulness of the Biolog system by adding a user-defined database based on New Zealand bacterial isolates. |
Objective 1
| Objective Title: | Create a local database |
| Research Leader: | Mark Braithwaite |
Description:
Two hundred bacterial isolates will be obtained from the Landcare culture collection in Auckland in collaboration with Dr John Young. To include the widest species variability, a minimum of 10 isolates per bacterial species will be selected from as many locations in New Zealand as possible. Twenty species from the Pseudomonad and Xanthomonad groups will be selected on their importance in plant disease, for export endorsements and in some instances quarantine significance (e.g. Xanthomonas campestris pv. citri, the casual agent of citrus canker which has been eradicated from New Zealand).
All organisms will be extracted from freeze-dried culture and cleaned to ensure pure cultures. Their characteristic responses will be recorded in the Biolog system (Release 3.5) as a unique database of New Zealand Pseudomonads and Xanthomonads.
Contact for Enquiries
Farm Monitoring Programme Manager
Monitoring and Evaluation
MAF Policy
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 4 894 0623
Fax: +64 4 894 0741
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