The Green Party wants plans for the use of the antibiotic streptomycin to help control the PSA vine disease to be abandoned.
The organisation responsible for a plan to control the disease is finalising protocols so growers can use streptomycin on vines three times before flowering takes place to kill PSA bacteria.
Kiwifruit Vine Health general manager John Burke says glasshouse trials have shown that when it is sprayed on vines it is very effective in killing the virulent form of the disease, PSA V.
He says streptomycin has the advantage that it stays on the plant for only three days but in that time is very active and deals rapidly with the disease.
Green Party food spokesperson Sue Kedgley says spraying the antibiotic on kiwifruit vines will inevitably lead to a build up of resistant bacteria which would have serious implications for human health.
She says a recent Food Safety Authority survey showed streptomycin-resistant bacteria in calves and sheep and poultry.
Ms Kedgley says it is also possible that residues will build-up and be picked up by bees, which could have a serious effect on lucrative honey export trade.
However, Mr Burke says it is planned as a stop-gap measure and the intention is that new products to combat PSA will be developed.
"From our point of view it is a short-term measure to try and reduce inoculum levels," he says.
Mr Burke says the use will be restricted to the period before the vines flower so beekeepers need have no fears of residues that could affect, in particular, their manuka honey production.
He says Ms Kedgley's view would only be correct if the industry was planning to use the antibiotic extensively and long term.
Mr Burke says KVH has been talking to beekeepers and kiwifruit growers as well as to stone fruit growers, who have been using streptomycin for some time.
Once protocols have been finalised, growers will be able to buy and use streptomycin only after receiving what is known as Justified Approval from kiwifruit marketer Zespri.
