Investigation of biosecurity risk organisms for the plant and environment domains in New Zealand for 2008 and 2009

Abstract

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Biosecurity New Zealand runs several surveillance programmes to detect new or emerging risk organisms in New Zealand Reporting of these organisms is through the exotic disease and pest emergency hotline Notifications received through the hotline are screened and investigated to determine if they pose a risk to New Zealands core biosecurity values (economic environmental human health and cultural) Significant numbers of notifications are received each year Data detailing the notification and investigation of suspect risk organisms in the plants and environment domains for the last 2 years are presented and compared with previously published data The trend in notifications and the resulting outcomes of investigations are discussed