The news may please the kiwifruit growers that a new rapid-detection test will take only a few days instead of weeks in order to acknowledge the type of PSA disease strain that affects the plants. The test is expected to be available from this particular week.

The speedy diagnostic process will help the growers to know if they have the dangerous PSA, called V strain or less harmful, LV strain and help to take the immediate actions as the virulent strain of PSA causes a quick death in the vines although the disease had slowed because of the sprays.

The General Manager of the Kiwifruit Vine Health organization, John Burke, said that approximately 97 orchards in the area of Te Puke were observed with the lethal form of PSA, although there are another 91 orchards where no PSA strains were acknowledged.

According to the Te Puke laboratory, the financial support from the post-harvest operators Seeka and Eastpack has helped it to develop the test that. "Over the last couple of months John has perfected a test that uses DNA extracted from a sample to detect the presence of Psa bacteria using a process called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)”, said Tracy McLean, the Verified Lab Services Manager.