For Immediate Release
Contact: Sydney Ross Singer
Director, Save The Guava
808-935-5563
www.SaveTheGuava.com
No More Passion in Paradise
Biocontrol Agent Against Banana Poka Attacks Lilikoi
Start saying good-bye to lilikoi. Researchers for the Hawaii Department of Agriculture have released a fungus, Septoria Leaf Spot Fungus, to attack banana poka, a relative of the commercial passion fruit. However, the fungus is attacking passion fruit, as well, causing the plants to rot and die. Initial research in Hawaii on this biocontrol agent suggested it would not attack the lilikoi. However, the scientists were wrong.
Early suspicion was raised by the HDOA in 2004, when New Zealand research on the fungus showed that it attacked commercial passion fruit. Nevertheless, the fungus was released in Hawaii and declared a biocontrol success. In 2005, New Zealand researchers at Landcare Research retested the fungus for use in their country, with the cooperation of the HDOA and its research facility in Honolulu. It was discovered that this fungus does indeed attack commercial passion fruit, making it unsuitable as a biocontrol agent for New Zealand, which values its commercial passion fruit industry. However, in 2006, despite having this information, the HDOA again released this fungus to attack banana poka. People are now noticing that their passion fruit plants are dying.
The current controversy over the introduction of a scale insect from Brazil to attack strawberry guava has raised concerns about the specificity of biocontrol agents and their potential to cause environmental and agricultural damage by attacking non-target species. The public has been told at various meetings that biocontrol introductions in the past 30 years have had no non-target problems. This fungal attack on the lilikoi was not mentioned. Given the HDOA's release of this fungus after knowing it attacks edible lilikoi, one must wonder if this was an unintended impact, or a deliberate attack on lilikoi.
The lilikoi, like the waiawi, are enjoyed by Hawaii residents, but do not constitute a significant commercial interest at this time. The public must bear the burden of these experiments by losing these free, wild, cherished foods to alien insect and fungal invasions brought to us by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture.
References:
http://hawaii.gov/hdoa/pi/ppc/2006-annual-report/banana-poka/?searchterm=septoria
http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/publications/newsletters/weeds/wtsnew34.pdf
http://hawaii.gov/hdoa/meetings_reports/e-news/november-2004/?searchterm=banana%20poka