biosecurity

The free Find-A-Pest app makes it easy to report and identify possible pest species. Wherever you are, you can help protect Aotearoa New Zealand’s primary industries...

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment report Space invaders: A review of how New Zealand manages weeds that threaten native ecosystems investigated the growing risk weeds...

American foulbrood (AFB) is a highly infectious disease that infects bee larvae. It costs the beekeeping industry millions of dollars a year and threatens the role...

In this recorded professional learning session Tame Malcolm (Kaimahi Matua at Te Tira Whakamātaki) and Greta Dromgool from the Science Learning Hub explore kaitiakitanga. Many of...

Myrtle rust is a serious biosecurity threat, and help is needed to monitor its spread. This citizen science project aims to gather information on the location,...

Research led by Victoria University of Wellington’s Dr Monica Gerth in collaboration with iwi has discovered molecules from New Zealand native plants could hold the solution...

Our planet has life on it, and for that reason, it may be unique in the universe. Ironically enough, we know much more about some of...

Fungi, plants, and animals live together in Tāne-mahuta, and all have important roles to play. Fungi live with plant roots, helping the plant to get minerals...

In November 2010, the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv. Actinidiae (Psa) was discovered in a Te Puke kiwifruit orchard. Psa had previously decimated kiwifruit crops in other...

On 8 October 2013, Landcare Research’s invertebrate ecologist Dr Shaun Forgie announced the release of two new species of dung beetles, Onthophagus taurus and Onthophagus binodus,...

Excrement-loving dung beetles, rolling their balls of animal poo across the ground, could one day become a familiar sight on New Zealand farms. These unlikely critters...

In early April 2014, a solitary male Queensland fruit fly (Bactrocera tryoni) was found in a biosecurity surveillance trap in the Parihaka area of Whangarei. The...

In July 2009, MAF Biosecurity New Zealand officials announced a significant milestone in their efforts to eradicate the southern saltmarsh mosquito (Ochlerotatus camptorhyncus) from New Zealand....

The complete genome of the pea aphid was published in 2010, with help from a team of New Zealand researchers. This 6-year project, involving scientists from...

In November 2010, kiwifruit growers discovered a highly contagious vine-killing canker, Pseudomonas syringae pv actinidiae (Psa), that affects the vine of the kiwifruit but not the...

Scientists around New Zealand have been working on how to combat the highly virulent pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa) – a bacterial disease that has...

Research by Plant & Food scientists is aiming to breed kiwifruit cultivars that show resistance to the pathogen Psa. Listen to this RNZ audio, Psa-resistant kiwifruit,...

Farming is a way of life in New Zealand – about half the country’s land is used for primary production. New Zealand Trade and Enterprise reports...

This timeline provides look at some of the historical aspects of saving our reptiles and amphibians and other species, the impacts on them by humans, and...

Fishing is a very important industry in New Zealand, and we have one of the largest territorial waters in the world. This timeline provides a look...

Ryegrass is an important food for cattle, but it is also a favourite food of competing insects. Can biological control offer a solution? What's so special...

A tiny Irish wasp can now be used as a biological control agent against clover root weevil, following permission from the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA)....

Introduced Chinese weevils, Cleopus japonicus, are laying waste to large patches of buddleia in the Bay of Plenty, much to the relief of forest growers and...

Resource management identifies the natural environment as a resource that needs to be protected and restored. New Zealand’s native biodiversity is unique. The high percentage of...