Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
Member of Parliament for Northland
4 MAY 2017

Myrtle Rust a Disaster Kiwis Can Help to Defeat

New Zealand First is amazed that the Minister for Primary Industries, Nathan Guy did not use a Ministerial Statement to ask that 4.7 million New Zealanders join the effort to locate incursions of the plant pest Myrtle Rust.

“This is what the Minister should have done instead of playing silly politics,” says New Zealand First Leader and Member of Parliament for Northland, Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“We need the help of every New Zealander, young and old and whether you live in town or the country.

“We need to work together to locate Myrtle Rust. This plant pest poses a clear and present danger to our natives like Manuka, Pohutukawa, Rata and Kanuka. That is why we are asking all New Zealanders to go to www.mpi.govt.nz and onto the page about Myrtle Rust.

“If people suspect they have found Myrtle Rust do not touch it but instead call the MPI Exotic Pest and Disease Hotline on 0800 80 99 66. If you can, take a photo but do not touch or disturb the plant because that could release and spread spores into the air.

“Messages like this is why Minister Guy should have used Parliament this afternoon, especially since we now have confirmation of infected Pohutukawa on the Kermadecs.

“Having raised this in Parliament one month ago today and immediately before confirmation came out, New Zealand First knows this is a national effort. We need all New Zealanders on the same team to help to defeat this devastating incursion,” says Mr Peters.

In May 2010, the Crown Research Institute Scion made six key recommendations in its Briefing document on Myrtle Rust, a member of the Guava Rust complex, and the risk to New Zealand:

New Zealand has some time available to develop a plan and initiate a pre-emptive response to the introduction and establishment of guava rust. To start, we recommend the following steps are taken:
a) The impact of P. psidii on New Zealand natives that are growing in Hawaii, where the disease is present, should be established.
b) A list of researchers actively working on the disease should be made. They could be asked to assess the susceptibility of NZ natives. Preferably these tests should be carried out in a number of countries or regions.
c) A molecular phylogenetic analysis to establish the relationship between P. psidii and the anamorphs in Uredo spp should be done to clarify the species boundaries.
d) A collaboration with NIWA should be established to model air currents across the Tasman Sea to develop an early warning system. This early warning system could be used to predict potential dates and places for inoculum arrival from Australia. This data, in combination with the CLIMEX distribution data could be used for targeted surveillance.
e) Establish collaborations with Australian researchers to assess infection of New Zealand natives growing in Australia. Because of the issues associated with races, it is important to understand the risk associated with the Australian race.
f) Langrell et al. (2008) have published a molecular diagnostic method for Puccinia psidii. Although U. rangelii was not tested with the primers, we suggest that the IDC lab prepare for the incursion by having the primers in stock because Langrell et al (2008) state that the priming sites are conserved among the isolates of P. psidii that were used to develop the test.

ENDS

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