Kiwis praised as avert disaster by nabbing a maggot

WELLINGTON (Reuters Life!) - Spotting a maggot poking out of your mandarin orange is normally a minor, low-level annoyance, rather than a billion-dollar national tragedy.

But eagle-eyed New Zealand airport agents who spotted and squashed a tiny fruit fly maggot on a tourist's mandarin are being hailed as heroes who have averted a biosecurity nightmare, New Zealand media reported on Thursday.

The small Queensland fruit fly maggot was spotted hitching a ride on an unsuspecting Australian tourist's undeclared mandarin at the South Island's Dunedin airport last week.

Horticulture New Zealand Chief Executive Peter Silcock said that if the fruit fly, the single most threatening pest facing kiwi horticulture, had made it across the border, it would have jeopardized the country's NZ$2.5 billion ($2 billion) commercial fruit and vegetable export industry.

"One mandarin carrying Queensland fruit fly maggots -- that's all it takes to start a chain of events that could threaten millions of dollars in export earnings and thousands of jobs in this country," said Silcock.

"Its discovery here would mean most of the more than 100 countries we export to would close their borders to our produce".

Biosecurity is a top issue for the geographically isolated South Pacific island nation, which earns billions from international tourism but fears overseas visitors may unwittingly bring in stowaway pests that threaten its agricultural products.

Planes entering the country must have up-to-date biosecurity certificates to avoid manual fumigations; and all food, animal and plant products must be declared to customs.

Airports, ports and mail centers are manned by biosecurity staff, such as those who spotted the maggot on the mandarin, and teams of sniffer dogs specially trained to spot hidden threats.