Medfly Threatens 100 Million Dollars in crops.

The appearance of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly in Punta Gorda Town - has forced the Belize Agricultural Health Authority to quarantine the southern town for 90 days. 8 fertile fruit flies have been discovered in Punta Gorda, and since last week Thursday - BAHA personnel have been on the ground burying ripe fruit, and installing checkpoints to make sure no fruit products leave the town. 7news flew into the affected areas today where BAHA's Hernan Zetina the supervisor of the Medfly Project told us that this is no casual crackdown, containment is a priority because this medfly poses a threat to a 100 million dollar industry:... Hernan Zetina, supervisor of the Medfly Project The agricultural industry right now, we're talking about close to 100 million dollars in fresh fruits and in fruits that are produced in the citrus area - although these fruits are not exported as fresh fruits we are talking about major fruit loss. So its very important to us to contain the medfly right now in Punta Gorda, in order to protect the rest of the country. Our primary objective right now is to contain the medfly in this area as you all know this is a very devastating pest - and if it was ever to leave this area and enter into the citrus belt - it would create havoc within the citrus industry. We're talking about losing 15 to 20% of production. We have set up quarantine at strategic locations where all vehicles leaving Punta Gorda are checked so that they not take out contaminated fruits or vegetables which could be potential Medfly hosts.. We're also applying chemicals every week so that if there are flies that are emerging then these flies will get attracted to the bait and they will die. We're also doing a public relations campaign. In tomorrow night's newscast, we'll have more on the urgent efforts to contain the medfly to Punta Gorda town