EUROPEAN BROWN ROT

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29264, 23 July 1960, Page 7

EUROPEAN BROWN ROT

Find By Quarantine Service European brown rot, a serious disease which does' not exist in New Zealand, was found in apples from Bulgaria when they were intercepted by the plant quarantine service of the Department of Agriculture, says the department’s annual report. This was one of the most important diseases not existing in New Zealand' which were found in imported fruits and vegetables. Others were black spot on oranges, twice intercepted in passengers’ luggage from Australia, and leaf spot on paeony plants from Holland.

Dead larvae, which had been killed in cool storage, were found in some imported fruits. Oranges from Cyprus contained dead larvae of the Mediterranean fruit fly, and an orange from South Africa contained the dead larvae of the false codlin moth. Live Locust A live locust was taken from an aircraft from Singapore, says the report, and mosquitos arrived in an aircraft from Australia. “A colony of Australian ants was found established in the Auckland district, but prompt treatment of the colony appears to have eradicated it. A queen ant of the guineense genus was taken from an aircraft from Fiji, and other ants were found in desiccated coconut from Ceylon.’’ Important interceptions on nursery stock, aircraft, vessels, and passengers’ luggage included the Siamese grain beetle on foodstuffs from China; the kumara weevil from Peru, Tonga and Fiji; and scale insects on hibiscus from Hawaii (reported for the first time in New Zealand and taken in post-entry quarantine). “Pre-export inspection of plants revealed the presence of bacterial leaf spot on primula and unidentified leaf spotting of beech,” the report says.