Disease - a dire threat to NZ agriculture

This is yet another case of, one minute you see it, the next you don't.

This is another example of a huge threat to New Zealand's agriculture and to the entire economy. This time this is down to government policy – a government that pays less than lip service to policies of border control that have served this country well for many years.

Everything is subservient to the interests of 'free trade' and the international financial elite that this government serves.

The government has broken down every mechanism that would serve to protect this country from imported diseases, instead choosing to set up a super-ministry (read super-bureaucracy).

The official response to a tragic (and in this case, preventible) crisis is, 'we've got a world-class service'.

I recommend listening to the comments of John Lancashire, immediate past president of New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Science in the interview below.

See THIS, from Frank McSkasy

Gaps seen in plan to deal with foot and mouth

Officials responsible for managing New Zealand's biosecurity admit there are gaps in plans for dealing with serious breaches, including a potentially catastrophic outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

A foot and mouth outbreak in Britain

Stuff,

1 March, 2013

Officials responsible for managing New Zealand's biosecurity admit there are gaps in plans for dealing with serious breaches, including a potentially catastrophic outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

A report by the auditor-general found that while the Ministry of Primary Industries had largely been successful in dealing with past incursions, it was not properly prepared for potential incursions of high-risk organisms.

Foot and mouth is a infectious and potentially fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals. There has never been an outbreak in New Zealand, but it is considered one of the greatest threats to the farming industry.

A Reserve Bank report predicted an outbreak would cost New Zealand's economy $13 billion in the first two years, with primary products blocked from many export markets.

The auditor-general's report highlighted a series of mergers in which responsibility for biosecurity has passed between government departments five times in nine years.

Spending on the biosecurity activities covered by the report in 2011-12 was at the lowest level in at least five years.

Auditor-General Lyn Provost said there were "many instances" where new biosecurity initiatives were never completed or embedded.

As well as a series of specific recommendations for a foot and mouth outbreak, the report recommended MPI take a reality check.

"Make all biosecurity planning more realistic by ensuring that plans reflect likely constraints on resources and reflect more accurately the capacity available to deliver them."

Andrew Coleman, deputy director-general of the MPI, said steps were already being taken to address issues highlighted by the report, but he acknowledged there was still issues. "There are still some gaps, but we're working towards filling these gaps over time."

Biosecurity preparedness was a continual process, but some of the specific recommendations, such as dealing with hundreds of carcasses in a foot and mouth outbreak, should be dealt with within 12 months, Mr Coleman said.

A spokesman for Federated Farmers saidthe department was working much more closely with industry on biosecurity, although there was still "a long way to go".

MPI PUTTING NZ AT RISK SAYS BIOSECURITY EXPERT

A world authority on foot and mouth disease says the Government is putting the economy at risk because it is more focused on overseas trade than biosecurity.

John Lancashire, immediate past president of New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Science; and Rob Thode, a Te Puke kiwifruit grower whose orchard was infected with PSA

Otago research tracks kiwifruit disease to China

University of Otago researchers have proved a canker disease that heavily damaged the New Zealand kiwifruit industry originated in China.

Otago Daily Times,

1 March, 2013

Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa) has spread to more than 1000 New Zealand orchards since it was discovered in the Bay of Plenty region in November 2010, and long-term costs are estimated at nearly $900 million.

The Otago research provides strong evidence China was the source not only of the Psa outbreak in North Island kiwifruit orchards, but also of the 2008 and 2010 outbreaks in Italy and Chile, respectively. The research, involving advanced genomics technology, has also shed more light on the role of key ''mobile genetic elements'' within Psa.

Researchers say the presence of these elements, which may add to the disease's virulence, underscore the growing importance of strict border control.

To analyse the geographic origins of Psa, the researchers sequenced and compared the genomes of strains from Japan, Chile, China, Italy and New Zealand.

Assoc Prof Russell Poulter, Prof Iain Lamont and Dr Margi Butler, all of the Otago biochemistry department, undertook the DNA detective work.

Prof Poulter said the researchers were ''really delighted'' with the way their ''internationally significant'' research was progressing.

The researchers had been focusing on mobile genetic elements they had detected in the Psa genome.

These elements - termed ICE or ''integrative conjugative elements''- could transfer between cells of different bacteria strains and alter properties such as their infectiousness and resistance to antibiotics.

Three distinct ICEs had been identified by the Otago team- one was shared by the New Zealand strains, and others linked to Italian and Chilean strains.

Some Psa might be ''inherently more virulent'' because of the particular ICE it carried.

This had ''worrying implications''. Strains of kiwifruit that were resistant to one type of Psa might not be resistant to another.

''This means strict border control by kiwifruit-producing countries is more important than ever,'' Prof Poulter said.

The Otago research also underscored the importance of powerful, multimillion-dollar, genetic sequencing equipment co-ordinated by New Zealand Genomics Ltd (NZGL) and based at the Otago department.

NZGL is a collaborative government-funded initiative, involving Auckland, Massey and Otago Universities.

Prof Poulter said much of the sequencing work had been completed in about two weeks. The task would have been ''impossible''- taking about 1000 years to complete- using equipment previously available in Dunedin.