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Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) officials who boasted in 2000 that New Zealand might become the first country to eradicates Dutch elm disease today rolled over on their eradication programme.
MAF's Biosecurity New Zealand agency said it is axing funding of its dutch elm disease programme.
"This follows a decision that national management of the disease is not a priority," said Andrew Harrison, MAF pest management group manager.
Other organisms posed a greater threat to the health and lifestyle of New Zealanders, the environment, and "cultural and economic wellbeing", he said.
In August 2000, MAF's forestry biosecurity director Ruth Frampton said New Zealand may become the first nation to eradicate the fungal disease that has killed most of the dutch elm trees in the United States and Europe.
"Dutch elm disease is being controlled in New Zealand, and a successful conclusion to the 10-year response programme is now a distinct possibility," she said.
Dutch elm disease is thought to have wiped out between a third and a half of all the six species of elms common to the United States, and has killed many varieties common to Europe.
In New Zealand the beetle carrier of the fungal disease, Scolytus multistriatus, was discovered in Auckland in 1989 and quickly spread.
- NZPA
