Kiwifruit growers urged to have pollen tested
MAF Biosecurity is urging kiwifruit growers to have pollen tested before it is used for artificial pollination on orchards.
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However, it does not agree with Federated Farmers' call for artificial pollination of kiwifruit vines to be suspended as a precaution against spreading the bacterial disease PSA.
The disease has been confirmed on 55 orchards in the Bay of Plenty, Tasman district, Hawke's Bay and Waikato.
Imported and locally collected pollen is used to supplement natural pollination by bees that are brought into orchards during flowering.
MAF has confirmed that the disease has been detected in samples of New Zealand pollen collected over several years, as well as imported pollen.
MAF response manager David Yard says it has suspended imports of kiwifruit pollen.
However, he says stopping artificial pollination is premature because there is still no clear link between that practice and the spread of the disease.
About half of the infected orchards have been artificially pollinated and there is still no clear evidence that the presence of this pollen infects healthy kiwifruit vines, he says.
On this basis, growers are being advised to get the pollen tested before use.
But Mr Yard says stopping artificial pollen would deprive some growers of fruit this season, because they do not have male vines on their orchards.
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獼猴桃種植者被敦促進行花粉檢測
MAF生物安全部敦促獼猴桃種植者在將花粉用于果園人工授粉之前進行檢測。
然而，它不同意聯(lián)邦農(nóng)民的呼吁，即暫停獼猴桃藤的人工授粉，以預防細菌性疾病PSA的傳播。
該疾病已在豐盛灣、塔斯曼區(qū)、霍克灣和懷卡托的55個果園中得到證實。
進口和當?shù)夭杉幕ǚ塾糜谘a充蜜蜂在開花期間帶入果園的自然授粉。
MAF已經(jīng)證實，在幾年來收集的新西蘭花粉樣本以及進口花粉中都檢測到了這種疾病。
MAF響應(yīng)經(jīng)理David Yard表示，已暫停進口獼猴桃花粉。
然而，他說停止人工授粉還為時過早，因為這種做法與疾病的傳播之間仍然沒有明確的聯(lián)系。
他說，大約一半的受感染果園是人工授粉的，目前還沒有明確的證據(jù)表明這種花粉的存在會感染健康的獼猴桃藤。
在此基礎(chǔ)上，建議種植者在使用前對花粉進行檢測。
但Yard先生表示，停止人工花粉將使一些種植者在這個季節(jié)失去水果，因為他們的果園里沒有雄藤。
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