No fruit flies found in first results back

The Ministry for Primary Industries has found no more fruit flies in its traps but says there are still a number of days before Whangarei's in the clear.

No more fruit flies have been found in traps set up after a lone Queensland fruit fly was discovered in New Zealand this week, but the country's Ministry for Primary Industries is warning against complacency.

No fruit flies were found in 83 traps set up within a 200m radius around the original find in Whangarei.

A further 162 traps were set up within a 1.5km radius of the find, and no flies have been found in the 90 traps checked so far.

"It's a good early result but it's important not to get complacent," MPI's deputy director-general for compliance and response, Andrew Coleman, said.

"We have still got a number of days to go before we know for sure whether there is a breeding population or not."

MPI has put controls in place to protect New Zealand's $NZ4 billion ($A3.83 billion) horticultural industry including restricting movement of fresh fruit and vegetables in the area, and setting up designated disposal bins for green waste.

Mr Coleman said he was grateful for the support of the Whangarei community who have put hundreds of kilos of restricted produce in the provided bins.

Restrictions on the movement of fruit and vegetables are likely to be in place for at least a couple of weeks.

New Zealand is free of the pest, which is found in the eastern areas of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria as well as some Pacific Islands.

The ministry has about 7500 traps set up around the country to detect the presence of the pest.

Queensland fruit flies were found in Whangarei in 1995 and in Auckland in 1996 and 2012 but populations did not become established.


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Source: AAP


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