New Zealand won’t likely be able to eliminate kiwi vine disease PSA, but the government and kiwi industry continue to look for ways to contain it, local news media reported.

The nation’s biosecurity agency continues to investigate reports and conduct tests on vine samples, according to website stuff.co.nz.

So far, said Agriculture Minister David Carter, samples from areas outside the region where the disease has been confirmed have turned out negative, according to the website.

Test results expected early this week will determine how the nation proceeds in dealing with  Pseudomonas syringae pv. Actinidiae, bacteria that cause spotting on leaves and bark problems in kiwi vines, eventually killing them. PSA’s presence has been confirmed on three orchards in the Bay of Plenty on the North Island, and six more have been quarantined, according to the website.

Carter said that eradicating the disease is unlikely because it is transferred through the air and water, and from contaminated people or equipment.

Other kiwi growing nations have taken note of New Zealand's precarious situation. Chile will increase its surveying to prevent a PSA, outbreak according to a statement from the Chilean kiwi committee. Officials from its agriculture and livestock sanitation agency will survey different areas of the country for signs of the disease, the statement said.

The decision is a response to the aggressiveness of the disease in the last few seasons elsewhere and because the golden kiwi, the variety most affected in New Zealand, is grown in Chile. In addition, the changes in climate and recent rain could increase chances that the disease will develop, the committee said. The sanitation agency and the kiwi committee decided to form a technical committee to develop diagnostic techniques and establish best practices.

The United States and Australia have stopped allowing kiwi cuttings into their countries, New Zealand media reported.

Source: www.freshfruitportal.com