Māori scientists lead effort to combat plant pathogen

 

Press Release – Biological Heritage National Science Challenge

The recent finding of myrtle rust on Raoul Island pohutukawa trees marks a significant and very sad milestone in a long history of impacts of invasive pathogens, pests and weeds on New Zealand’s unique flora and fauna, says Dr Andrea Byrom, Director …Media statement by the National Science Challenge for NZ’s Biological Heritage:

Māori scientists lead effort to combat plant pathogen

The recent finding of myrtle rust on Raoul Island pōhutukawa trees marks a significant and very sad milestone in a long history of impacts of invasive pathogens, pests and weeds on New Zealand’s unique flora and fauna, says Dr Andrea Byrom, Director of the New Zealand’s Biological Heritage National Science Challenge.

Myrtle rust is a highly invasive plant pathogen whose impacts – if it establishes on the New Zealand mainland – will not be limited to our native flora. The pathogen also has the potential to pose a serious risk to primary industries, because it affects all species of the plant family myrtaceae, such as feijoa, eucalyptus, and mānuka. In Australia, the disease has – worryingly – caused the extinction of several treasured plant species of significance to Aboriginal Australians.

Dr Byrom says: “Fortunately, in 2016 the NZ’s Biological Heritage National Science Challenge funded a multidisciplinary research project aimed at boosting the preparedness of NZ’s biosecurity system for an incursion of this plant pathogen.”

The research project, ‘Māori solutions to biosecurity threats and incursions to taonga species’ is led by a Māori research team from the BioProtection Research Centre at Lincoln University in collaboration with Te Turi Whakamātaki (the Māori Biosecurity Network), Auckland Council, Scion, Plant & Food Research, Better Border Biosecurity, the Department of Conservation, the Ministry for Primary Industries, and international collaborators in Australia, South Africa, the UK, and the US.

A major strand to the project is to make better use of surveillance data to inform incursion responses just like the one we are now facing. The research team recognized early on the potential impacts of the pathogen, and have a network of citizen scientists and researchers ‘ready to act’ with their international counterparts.

Dr Byrom says: “Critical to the success of any response will be a rapid and coordinated approach. We will need to make maximum use of all available information collected formally by DOC and MPI. But equally importantly right now, there is no better time to put into action one of the strategic priorities outlined in MPI’s ‘Biosecurity 2025’ action plan: making the best use of 4.7 million engaged and biosecurity-aware citizens, keeping an eye out for the first signs of this disease. Scientists in the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge will work closely with the Māori Biosecurity Network, DOC, and MPI to make every effort to prevent the spread of this disease to the mainland of Aotearoa New Zealand.”

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