EARLY DETECTION KEY TO ERADICATION Words by Helen Barnes : General Manager, TomatoesNZ Inc.
Early detection of an unwanted virus – the Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) – in a small tomato seed lot has allowed quick action to be taken to contain and prevent it taking hold in New Zealand. All the seeds and resulting plants and plant material have been destroyed. The virus has had a huge impact on tomato growing in countries where it is present. It is easily transmitted on people, plants and equipment and is very difficult to get rid of. It also affects capsicum. ToBRFV is a virus that we have been talking to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) about for the past 12 months. TomatoesNZ pointed out the need to strengthen seed import requirements, and new certification and testing measures were put in place early last year to try and minimise the risk of it arriving here. In early December, industry alerted Biosecurity New Zealand to the presence of ToBRFV in seeds imported from Israel. Although these seeds were imported with a phytosanitary certificate declaring them to be free of ToBRFV based on testing completed offshore, further testing identified a very low level of infection.
ToBRFV on red fruit
This virus is something that we don’t want our growers here to have to face. The industry needs to acknowledge the quick reporting of the seed company, and cooperation of the affected parties, as well as MPI’s quick action to eliminate any risk in this case. We worked closely with MPI during this process, as a GIA (Government Industry Agreement) partner, along with Vegetables New Zealand (for capsicums) and Process Vegetables New Zealand (for process tomato growers) and NZ Plant Producers Incorporated (for the nurseries). Biosecurity New Zealand has been able to account for all of the imported seeds and the plants grown from them. There have been no symptoms or positive tests for ToBRFV from the plants grown from the seeds, which have been restricted to three greenhouse sites in Auckland. While there is no reason to suspect there has been any spread of the disease, all the plants grown from the contaminated seed have been destroyed to manage any residual risk. The three greenhouse sites have also been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.
ToBRFV on green fruit 62
NZGROWER : FEBRUARY 2021
As a further precaution, Biosecurity New Zealand destroyed some tomato plants grown from different, uncontaminated seeds that were grown in close proximity to the affected plants at one of the sites.
