18 Feb 2019

Devonport fruit fly investigation to take weeks

From Morning Report, 7:10 am on 18 February 2019

It will be weeks before the Auckland suburb of Devonport can be declared free of the Queensland fruitfly. Exhaustive checks are needed over an extended time before officials can be certain the fly is not part of a larger population. Sixty biosecurity field staff are closely monitoring all properties within 200 metres of where a single male fly was caught in a surveillance trap. They are also laying many more traps and there are restrictions on the movement of fruits and vegetables in and out of the 1.5km Controlled Area. Catherine Duthie is from Biosecurity New Zealand. She talks to Guyon Espiner.