Health Impact Assessment Relating to Venomous Spiders Entering New Zealand in Association with Imported Table Grapes

A Health Impact Assessment Relating to Venomous Spiders Entering New Zealand in Association with Imported Table Grapes
Date of publication: September 2002

Based on this assessment the Chief Technical Officer (Health) has not found that the public health risk posed by spiders entering the country on imported table grapes warrants the continuation of the suspension of Californian imports.

She has found that the moderately high individual health risk posed by post-border detections of black widow spiders warrants the imposition of further pre-border measures to maximise as far as possible the likelihood of these spiders being intercepted before crossing the border, and the implementation of post-border measures to mitigate the effects of any future post-border detections of spiders of public health significance on imported table grapes.

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Invitation for Submissions on the Assessment of Risks of Exotic Spiders Associated with Imported Table Grapes

Biosecurity and quarantine

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF)

Environmental Health