PLANT DISEASE CONTROL

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26397, 16 April 1951, Page 6

PLANT DISEASE CONTROL

AIRPORT QUARANTINE MEASURES SUGGESTION BY PACIFIC COMMISSION (New Zealand Press Association) _ AUCKLAND, April 15. The spread of plant and animal disease through the South Pacific area could be postponed indefinitely or entirely prevented if the interested Governments enforced strict airport quarantine measures. This was the opinion reached at the South Pacific Commission's conference on plant and animal quarantine which ended in Suva last week. The leader of the New Zealand delegation (Mr G. A. H. Helson) of the Department of Agriculture, said on his return by air on Saturday that the conference had been a great success and agreement was reached on many points. The conference was called on the question of airport quarantine, as the speed of air transport had greatly increased the danger of the introduction of many diseases. Mr Helson said that the forms of treatment agreed on were adequate fumigation and incineration facilities at the airports and proper insecticidal spraying of arriving aircraft. Quarantine measures would be applied to the arrival of all planes, military and civil, at overseas airports. Care would have to be taken that plantings of trees and gardens nearby would not include host plants which would provide a refuge for diseases near the planes. An important part of the quarantine measures was co-operation with the other territories concerned. Each Government would prepare a list of plant and animal diseases which it has to guard against in its area. The lists would be kept up-to-date with monthly returns.

Mr Helson said that the conference was seriously concerned with the problem arising from the importation of fodder straw and packing material for a wide range of imported goods. There was a very serious risk of introducing weeds and insect pests and unless these materials were brought in only tinder the strictest quarantine plant-and animal diseases were bound to occur. Rice straw and leaves had been recommended for total exclusion from all territories. "Imported ornamental plants may also act as hosts for nests and diseases,” said Mr Helson “We must remember that even flowering plants will become weeds in new surroundings.”