Investigation into the entry pathway for tomato potato psyllid Bactericera cockerelli

Abstract

The tomato potato psyllid (TPP) Bactericera cockerelli (Hemiptera: Triozidae) was first notified to the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) in May 2006, although it has been suggested by several authors to have been present in New Zealand in 2005. MAF undertook an entry pathway analysis during the initial investigation into TPP in 2006. TPP is a vector of the bacterium-like pathogen Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum ('liberibacter') and MAF further analysed the entry pathway of TPP during the liberibacter incursion response in 2008. This paper summarises the data and reasoning behind the conclusion that TPP was most plausibly introduced to New Zealand as a result of smuggling, rather than through slippage on regulated pathways.