GETTING READY FOR A NEW PEST – FALL ARMYWORM Words by Leanne Stewart : General Manager, Process Vegetables New Zealand PVNZ was joined by representatives from processing companies, Biosecurity New Zealand, Vegetables New Zealand, the Foundation for Arable Research and HortNZ, who facilitated the simulation. The focus of the simulation was a mock response located on a sweetcorn farm in Gisborne belonging to a commercial process vegetable grower. In the simulation the Fall armyworm was detected by a crop advisor walking the field who noticed unusually severe damage to sweetcorn plants. The crop advisor did the right thing and phoned the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Pest and Disease hotline (0800 80 99 66) and was told to collect the caterpillar and take photos of the damage to the infested plants. Based on the photos and sample taken, MPI identified the caterpillar to be Fall armyworm, which is not established in New Zealand and is considered to be an unwanted organism. Fall armyworm larvae and damage to a corn ear, Image source: University of Georgia, Bugwood.org. Creative Commons 3.0
At the April board meeting Process Vegetables NZ (PVNZ) participated in a biosecurity simulation to prepare for a potential future incursion of Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda). The reason PVNZ focused on Fall armyworm in the simulation is because it is known to be a significant pest of vegetable and arable crops worldwide, causing extensive damage when incursions of the pest go unmanaged. Of concern, Fall armyworm was detected in Australia in February 2020 and has since spread across states, including to Tasmania. It has also recently been detected in New Caledonia and Norfolk Island, indicating it is progressively getting closer to New Zealand.
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Given PVNZ is a member of the Government Industry Agreement for biosecurity this then triggered a response, and it was agreed by industry and government decision makers to formally stand up a response. In this simulation groups were formed and each team member was given a response role to practice how they would each contribute in a genuine response; these included a response controller, intelligence, planning, operations, logistics, public information and welfare. Each group went through the response information available and discussed what they would do in their first three days of responding. It was good to see that all groups focused on important considerations such as tracing any movement of sweetcorn or plant material, management of the organism, supporting the impacted grower, communication with industry and any market access implications. Simulations are a great way to understand how biosecurity responses work. They develop biosecurity response capability so that when a response occurs the board and others who participated in the simulation know what to do and contribute their skills if necessary.
