Current AQIS activities

AQIS officer makes history	Ghost yacht a biofouling nightmare for Bowen
BMX bikes wheelie clean in quarantine	Abbey puts her paws up
Tough customer or soft-centred sweetie?	Building expertise for AQIS and for Australia
Slaying the yellow dragon	Animal quarantine stations deliver top service
Crews rush to meet strict import laws	Melbourne - Australia's number one port
New certification to keep honey exports sweet	AQIS wins national nursery industry awards
Australian dairy products destined for India	Antarctic waste heads home
Jet Pets and AQIS help with bushfire animal relief	Indonesian vets tour Australia
MAFBNZ and AQIS - a trans-Tasman alignment	Australia proposes improvements to global food safety standards

The Melbourne-based AQIS officer who intercepted a thrips species previously unknown in the scientific world has been rewarded with the highest honour—the insect has been named after her.

Katarina Graljuk discovered tiny insects clinging to fresh plant leaf Catha edulis, commonly known as Khat, imported by the Australian African community in 2008.

When Katarina presented the insects to AQIS’s entomologists, they were stumped. They knew they were thrips but they didn’t know what species.

The entomologists engaged the help of leading CSIRO thrips taxonomist and ex-curator of the British Natural History Museum, Dr Laurence Mound, who quickly identified them as ‘something new’. After extensive liaison with other world thrips experts, Dr Mound published a scientific paper detailing the new thrips and described the origin of the new thrips’ name Kenyattathrips katarinae.

The new names reflect the Kenyan origin of the specimens studied, and the contribution of Katarina Graljuk who first intercepted the species in Australia, and who, with her colleagues at the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, help prevent invasive organisms from entering and harming Australian agriculture and ecosystems¹.

Katarina is chuffed with the name.

‘It’s very exciting to have been part of history in the making, and it was all in a day’s work!’ said Katarina.

Thrips are the bain of the horticulture and nursery industries—they not only suck the sap of plants but are also vectors for tospoviruses, causing millions of dollars damage each year.

Katarina joins an elite group of people who have insects named after them: the Caloplaca obamae is an orange lichen named after Barack Obama; the Avahi cleesei is a woolly lemur named after John Cleese; and Agathidium vaderi is a slime mold beetle named after Darth Vader.

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 ¹ Mound, L.A. (2009) A new genus and species of Scirtothrips genus-group (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) from Kenya, intercepted by Australian quarantine Zootaxa 2210: 65–68 (http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2009/f/z02210p068f.pdf)

More then 12 months after she was abandoned at sea, the seven metre yacht, the Air Apparent, has finally come to rest at a marina in Bowen, Queensland on Australia's east coast leaving AQIS officers with a biofouling clean-up.

The hardy sailboat travelled more than 2000 nautical miles drifting across the Pacific Ocean after its captain and inexperienced crew abandoned the yacht in rising seas and were air lifted by helicopter off New Zealand's north east coast on March 25, 2008.

The sailboat and its mutiny made headlines within the New Zealand yachting community but it was the amount of biofouling that was the breaking news for AQIS officers.

The yacht was heavily fouled with an estimated 20 kilograms of seaweed and gooseneck barnacles, crustaceans that live in intertidal zones of temperate and cold water oceans.

Biofouling is a term used by the maritime industry describing when marine organisms attach to and grow on objects such as hulls, anchors, cables, fenders—in fact just about anything that comes into regular contact with the sea.

It is recognised worldwide as a pathway for the introduction and spread of exotic marine pests and diseases.

Yacht owners are advised to use an effective anti–fouling coating not less than 12 months old on their vessels and to clean hulls and equipment that have been in contact with seawater at their last port of call, prior to arriving in Australia.

The Air Apparent's solo drifting voyage meant neither had happened.

Local fisherman spotted the sailboat off the coast south of Townsville and towed the sailboat into the marina, contacting the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service who in turn advised AQIS. 

Under AQIS supervision, the yacht was taken to a haul out facility and placed onto a hardstand were it was cleaned from top to bottom—including water intake systems'—with a high pressure water cleaning system.

All material removed from the yacht was treated and disposed of to ensure biosecurity integrity with the yacht remaining on the hardstand for a further 48 hours before release by AQIS officers.

BMX riders from all corners of the globe have descended on Adelaide for the 2009 World Championships. With around 2,000 competitors arriving from 40 nations, quarantine officers have been busy inspecting bikes to ensure they are free from contamination.

Notorious for harbouring soil and seeds, bicycle tyres could introduce noxious weeds and diseases. At the airport and import clearance depots AQIS officers were pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness of the bikes. AQIS officer Graham Cook said 'most are meticulously clean—some have had minor contamination removed, with only a handful requiring detailed cleaning'.

In the build-up to the event the Adelaide office worked with Cycling Australia to prepare a quarantine fact sheet alerting international competitors to Australia's quarantine requirements. AQIS Airport supervisor Chris Ryan said the fact sheet 'gave practical advice on cleaning footwear and bikes to ensure they are "clean as new", and on what items must be declared when arriving in Australia'.

Major international sporting and cultural events often attract a range of quarantine risk material including sporting footwear and equipment or musical instruments. With help from AQIS, event organisers can provide participants with valuable information that will help protect Australia's agricultural industries and unique environment—and make for a smoother passage through Australian airports.

A well-earned rest is in store for recently-retired detector dog Abbey. Abbey started her career in 2002, working as an 'active response' dog at the Sydney International Mail Centre, where she detected more than 300 items of quarantine risk.

Her potential was realised when she was redeployed as a 'passive response' detector dog and sent north to work in the Brisbane International Airport for several years, before heading to Adelaide International Airport in 2007.

Passive response dogs are trained to sit when they find a target odour, such as fruit or meat, and await a food reward from their handler. They generally work around the public. Active response dogs are trained to dig in response to items that contain a target odour, and are rewarded with food or a game of tug-of-war when they find quarantine material. Active response dogs generally work at mail centres (AQIS) and for private courier operations.

During her career as a passive detector dog, Abbey sniffed almost a million passengers over 5,700 flights, resulting in 3,280 seizures, including 98 on-body detections. Highlights in her career include multiple Quarantine Infringement Notices and four prosecutions.

On her last working day at Adelaide airport, Abbey's handler, Matthew Huddy, was asked a very common question by two young travellers: 'Can we pat the dog?'. Usually the response would have been a polite 'no'. But given that Abbey had completed her last flight, Matthew granted the lucky travellers their wish.

Abbey has now put up her paws—at the Canberra home of her first handler.

When AQIS NT vet Joe Schmidt graduated from Murdoch University, WA, in 1995, he became Australia's first male, Indigenous veterinary science graduate—an Indigenous woman, Annie Svensen graduated the same year.

Possibly realising that growing up in the tough, Territory town of Tennant Creek wasn't going to be easy for a boy who cheerfully describes himself as 'a Liquorice Allsort'—paying wry homage to his mixed ancestry that includes Chinese, Irish, Scottish, German and Aboriginal—Joe's father sent him, aged 13, to a boarding college in South Australia to be educated.

'My father had no idea,' says Joe, 'of the culture of deprivation and violence at that school. It wasn't till I became head boarding house prefect in years 11 and 12, and deputy head prefect of the school, that I was able to exert a modifying influence. I used my personal reputation as "a tough customer" to convince others and the culture of bullying stopped after my first two weeks in the job.

Still a crusader for fairness and the underdog, Joe is often seen around town with his wife Sam (also a vet) at demonstrations in support of women's issues. Joe's imposing 1.88 metre (6 foot 2 inch), 105 kilogram figure, height extended by one or another of his daughters riding on his shoulders, stands literally head and shoulders above the crowd of mums and prams.

Joe's a real family man, and his third daughter was born in April this year. 'I grew up with one sister (now a qualified health worker living in Mt Isa) but a large extended family,' he says. 'Mum was a member of the stolen generation and grew up on a Mission on Croker Island and Dad was a first generation German immigrant. They work on their four-square kilometre farm at Tennant Creek where we grew up, with their horses, cattle and chickens—it's a bit like [the television show] The Good Life.'

Educational firsts must run in Joe's family because he tells us his mother was the first Indigenous woman in Australia to become a triple certificated hospital sister.

After graduation, Joe worked in private practice for nine years, for seven of which he was Chief Veterinarian at Fannie Bay Racecourse, where he 'met many colourful figures and my wife, Sam'.

Joe extended his knowledge of horse treatment by doing a one-year surgical internship in Scone, NSW, home to some of Australia's most expensive thoroughbreds. When he returned to Darwin he helped Sam with her remote-area dog program work until four weeks before their first daughter was born. Remote Indigenous communities tend to house large numbers of dogs, often malnourished and carrying parasites that can be transmitted to humans. The dog program visited these remote communities, ran an education campaign and, with owners' permission, gave the dogs a health check and spayed them to limit reproduction.
 
Since 2006, Joe has combined his veterinary training, love of the Territory and crusading spirit to help protect Australia from exotic animal diseases. As Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy (NAQS) veterinary officer, Joe surveys feral animals in remote areas and trains local Indigenous people to obtain blood and tissue samples on behalf of AQIS. 

Joe says highlights of his time with AQIS include securing a memorandum of understanding with Bradshaw and Yampi Sound military training bases that enables AQIS to survey them for exotic pests and diseases. He was also involved in the setting-up of the first Indigenous-run sentinel cattle herd in the Territory (sentinel herds are regularly tested for antibodies that might indicate the presence of exotic diseases). Forming closer relationships with all pastoralists in the NT NAQS zone and training Indigenous ranger groups are other achievements, he says.

85 year old Australasian midge 'guru'
Alan Dyce has discovered and grouped
nearly 250 species of midge in a
passion spanning 50 years

In a passion spanning 50 years, 85 year old Australasian midge 'guru' Alan Dyce has discovered and grouped nearly 250 species of midge; a feat whose scope becomes more obvious when you understand that midges—popularly called sandflies—are about the size of a pinhole.

The CSIRO Emeritus Fellow spent the first 20 years of his retirement recording information to produce a wing-picture atlas of Australasian midges. Published in 2007, the atlas is the first comprehensive look at midges in Australasia.

Working alongside Alan for the past eight years, AQIS entomologist Glenn Bellis helped assemble the information for the publication and built up his own midge credentials, knowing that Alan wanted to slow down, but also wanted to ensure his work would be carried forward.

'Alan’s intention was to describe all the species groups, but in the end it became obvious that time was beating him,' says Glenn.

So that more species could be catalogued, in 2008 AQIS facilitated Glenn's secondment to a biodiversity project funded by the Australian Biological Resources Study within the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.

'The secondment lasted for four months,' Glenn says. 'During that time four manuscripts were prepared for publication including illustrations and identification keys.

'I was also able to put together a key to species found in the Northern Territory and some threatening exotic species.' AQIS contributes information to the National Arbovirus Monitoring Program (NAMP), which monitors northern Australian regions for exotic midges, the diseases they transmit, and any southerly expansion of local species' distribution.

The key will help distinguish local from exotic and is the first key to species in the world that doesn't rely on mounting specimens on slides but uses characteristics visible under a stereo microscope, at relatively low magnification (up to 100 x).

Understanding midges is important to the health of Australia's sheep and cattle, as some species spread the virus that causes 'bluetongue'. Infection of Australia's herds with this virus would close many of our export markets to Australian animals.

Glenn has accepted the baton from Alan Dyce and has taken over as the reference entomologist for NAMP. 'Alan's shoes are big ones to fill in the midge world,' Glenn says, 'but he's passed on a lot of knowledge to me over the years and it's good to know he's around if I need to confirm a tricky ID.'

Three AQIS scientific staff from northern Australia travelled to Indonesia recently to help train the trainers—field extension officers from Lombok, Bali, Java and Sumatra—with a focus on techniques to diagnose huanglongbing (yellow dragon disease) or citrus greening.

Trainers from Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia's Agency for Agricultural Quarantine, Gadjah Mada University and AQIS presented information and practical training workshops at the Pest Forecasting Centre in Jatisari, three hours out of the capital, Jakarta. The Indonesian field extension officers will now go back to their 12 provinces and pass on the knowledge to help local farmers.

Yellow dragon disease has no cure; it grows in the tissue of citrus plants and kills the tree. The symptoms—a gradual yellowing that spreads slowly over the tree—gave rise to its Chinese name huanglongbing meaning yellow dragon. It is devastating to citrus growers to watch the yellow dragon devour the tree because the only way to overcome the disease is to destroy all infected trees and replant in areas free of the bacterium and free of the insect that spreads it, the citrus psyllid.

AQIS plant pathologist Lynne Jones rejuvenated a disused laboratory and taught the field officers how to run citrus greening diagnostics. The disease is difficult to diagnose visually and molecular diagnosis is virtually the only means available. Lynne's colleagues, entomologist Glenn Bellis and plant pathologist Jane Ray, presented information on pest surveillance, methodology and collection.

The three AQIS staff taught a total of 48 Indonesian staff in three separate groups.

'It was my first trip to do this training work overseas and I was pleased with the results. I prepared workshops notes, which proved to be the key in breaking down the language barrier, as the participants could read English better than they could speak it,' Lynne said.

'The great thing about the participants was they were keen as mustard and worked well together. If one of them could understand what I was saying, they would share it with the rest of the group.'

Ibu Cahayaniati, head of the Fruit Protection Division of the Indonesian Department of Agriculture's Directorate of Horticulture Protection, said 'Early detection and mapping of areas affected by huanglongbing is vital in our fight to grow healthy citrus trees. If we can diagnose the disease early and map affected areas, we can encourage planting in areas that are free of the disease.'

Jane and Glenn stayed on in Indonesia for a further two weeks after the conference to do a joint survey of mango production areas in West Java with Indonesian colleagues.

Every year, thousands of animals arrive in Australia where they are required to stay at least 30 days in one of Australia's three animal quarantine stations (6,700 dogs and cats in 2007–08). Located in New South Wales (Eastern Creek), Western Australia (Byford) and Victoria (Spotswood), animal quarantine stations are managed by AQIS and help protect Australia's favourable animal health status by monitoring the health of animals prior to their release in Australia.

AQIS's veterinarians conduct full health checks on all animals upon arrival and departure from quarantine. Handlers are then assigned to care for an animal during the quarantine period and this continuous contact enables handlers to learn quirks of individual pets and easily recognise any developing health problems. If a health problem does arise, the animal is referred to an AQIS vet immediately.

The outstanding service that pets receive by experienced kennel hands at the quarantine stations alleviates any anxiety animal owners might have. 

This client of Spotswood Animal Quarantine Station agreed: 'It was obvious they all truly cared for the animals they looked after. It gave me peace of mind knowing that a kennel hand was taking care of my dog while in quarantine. I was encouraged that they remembered the animals by name!'

Spotswood Quarantine Station has received plenty of praise from animal owners impressed with the care their animals have received. A client who had two dogs in Spotswood—with one dog diabetic—commented, 'Both dogs returned from Spotswood in fantastic health. My diabetic dog was healthier during and after his stay than before entering Spotswood!'

Not only are animals expertly cared for, but health information is also given to owners. 'I was offered excellent advice prior to leaving Singapore and when I arrived in Melbourne. This was helpful in managing diabetic issues.'

While dogs and cats make up approximately 80 per cent of animals at quarantine stations, other animals receiving daily care include horses, alpacas, rabbits and pigeons.

'One of the most important things to take into consideration when planning to take your pet into Australia is to book a place at a quarantine station well ahead of the journey,' Wayne Gundry, Manager Animal Quarantine said.

All our animal quarantine stations regularly receive compliments and feedback from satisfied pet owners. Byford Quarantine Station in WA recently received the following:

'Halle (our Golden Retriever) completed her 30 day quarantine period at the Byford Quarantine Facility in Western Australia. I found the staff to be extremely professional and courteous, and most importantly, showed a lot of care for the well being and comfort of Halle… We would like to thank you for the wonderful service and care we received. It certainly made us feel a lot better about our dog having to go through the quarantine period.'

More information on importing your dog or cat.

Story by Laura Elder, The Daily News, Galveston County, Texas

Galveston County, Texas—For 10 hours each day for three weeks, nine men have worked to painstakingly remove grease, dirt, hardened iron dust, residual flora and stowaway fauna from eight pieces of heavy railroad equipment.

They pressure clean. They steam clean. They scrub by hand. They fumigate. It's filthy work. And if they miss a spec or a spore, the lapse could cost 'many tens of thousands of dollars.'

'It would be a disaster,' said Ross Radich, operations manager with global shipping firm Skelton Sherborne, responsible for getting the grinder to Australia.

The men, who work so meticulously at Portside Cleaning, 35th and Church streets in Galveston, are under intense pressure to sterilise the apparatus, a Loram rail grinding train, before it's loaded on a chartered vessel at Pier 37 to haul it to Queensland, Australia.

'It’s man's work,' Radich said.

Should the rail grinder, a maintenance train used to resurface worn rails, violate Australia's rigid quarantine laws and be refused entry, Radich will have to answer to his bosses.

'The pressure's on,' Radich said.

Before Australian quarantine inspectors allow the rail grinder in, the machinery has to be as clean as new, Radich said.

'They don't say as nearly as clean as new,' he said. 'They say as clean as new.'

Australia's tough quarantine laws are meant to protect its flora and fauna. The island continent has for decades battled with invasive species, including red fire ants, cane toads, rabbits and a variety of fungi and parasites. In recent years, Australia has been battling citrus canker, a bacterial disease harming its orchards.

Each car of the rail grinder, made by Hamel, Minn.-based Loram Inc., is filled with electronics. The machinery is run by a crew and computers.

Track maintenance is a US$6 billion a year industry. With grinders, tracks don't have to be taken out of commission for restoration.

Grinders, which emit sparks, can create interesting light shows at night and come equipped with water tank cars for preventing fires and hoses to fight them.

Although the rail grinder in Galveston has two water tanks, they won't be travelling to Australia. Instead, they'll be installed there, Radich said.

The eight cars on the rail grinder will be hoisted by crane on to the ship.

'Everything has to be done perfectly,' Radich said.

Story reprinted with kind permission from The Daily News, Galveston County, Texas (www.galvnews.com, 20 April 2009)

In its first season as a cruise vessel First Port, Melbourne's Station Pier has become the centre of attention. The Melbourne public has shown an appetite for cruising with 136,000 passengers and 46,000 crew being screened by AQIS via mobile X-ray, detector dogs and direct officer intervention.

Fifty-six cruise vessels passed through the Port over the summer season and eight full vessel turnarounds (passengers fully embarking then disembarking from the same port) were conducted. On average 2,000 passengers disembarked off each arrival.

Although Station Pier was not originally designed as a passenger processing facility, key ports stakeholders and AQIS have developed efficient passenger processing systems; designed to cope with large numbers and tight timelines. Unlike airports, which impose strict baggage limits, there are no weight or size restrictions on cruise ship luggage which creates manual handling and occupational health and safety challenges for staff from the various agencies.

Regional Shipping staff have also been involved in multiple 'boardings-at-sea' at Cowes (Phillip Island) where a minimum of two staff monitor the movement of passengers onto charter boats in order to control the potential risk of quarantine risk material leaving the vessel.

This was the busiest ever season for Station Pier. AQIS officers contributed directly to Melbourne's ranking as the number one port in Australia for processing times and efficiency. AQIS also assisted the Port of Melbourne to achieve the ranking of number five port in the world for Princess Cruise Lines.

This is an outstanding achievement and demonstrates the close and mutually beneficial working relationship between AQIS and key industry stakeholders in achieving world class processing standards.

AQIS has moved to protect the reputation of Australia's honey and honey products by introducing enhanced certification regulations.

The new rules affect export honey products that contain imported ingredients: AQIS now requires a certificate of analysis to confirm that the products are free from residues of banned drugs that have previously been detected in honey products repackaged and exported from Australia, or blended with Australian honey and exported.

Detections of nitrofurans in Australian honey caused disruptions to trade between Australia and Canada in 2003 and 2004, and in 2005 and 2006. AQIS's imported food program found nitrofurans in consignments of honey from China and Bulgaria. More recently, chloramphenicol residues have been found in Australian blended honey and propolis exported to the United Kingdom.

As far as AQIS has been able to determine, all of these cases involved repackaging of imported product or blending of imported honey with Australian honey.

Investigations identified the imported components as the source of the residues.

The certificate of analysis must include chloramphenicol and nitrofuran antibiotics, and must meet the minimum performance criteria listed by the European Commission (Commission Decision 2003/181/CE of 13 March 2003, Off. J. Eur. Commun. L71 (2003) 17).

Photo credit: DWSPL/Linda Lainge

AQIS's Post Entry Plant Quarantine (PEPQ) team at Knoxfield has been awarded with the 2009 Nursery and Garden Industry Australia Supplier Award, at a special awards ceremony. This is on the back of winning the State 2009 Nursery and Garden Industry of Victoria (NGIV) Award for the Supplier of the Year earlier in 2009.

The plant quarantine centre at Knoxfield is the only government post-entry quarantine facility for high risk plants in Victoria.

The state and national awards are significant as they are the first ever received by an AQIS plant quarantine centre. The awards are testament to the strong relationship that staff within the facility have built with the horticulture industry and the high regard in which it is held by the industry. The safe but efficient facilitation of plant material through the quarantine facility provides industry with confidence that imported plant material will be free of the dangers of exotic pests and diseases, protecting our markets and export industries.

The Knoxfield centre has been an accredited facility with NIASA (Nursery Industry Accreditation Scheme Australia) for more than a decade.

The AQIS team members are Kimberley Thomas, Zoee Maddox, Kirsty McDermid, Ray Ward, Robin Eichner and Mark Whattam. In addition, the Horticultural team members have recently each been awarded Certified Nursery Professional (CNP) status. CNP members are recognised for their professional integrity, knowledge and skills to provide superior services to consumers and the horticultural industry.

According to centre manager Kimberley Thomas, through the detection of plant diseases AQIS provides invaluable protection to the Australian horticultural and agricultural industries worth 32 billion dollars annually.

'The Plant Quarantine Centre also educates importers and promotes the safe entry of plant germplasm into Australia.'

Nursery and Garden Industry Australia is continuing to provide an important source of inspiration and encouragement, by showcasing the extraordinary capabilities of individuals and businesses within the industry.

Nursery and Garden Industry President, Robert Prince, said, 'The future of the Australian nursery and garden industry is in great hands if the range and quality of award entries are any indication.'

It's been more than five years since Australia has exported dairy products to India, a drought now broken by AQIS with the approval of a new health certificate by the Indian Ministry of Agriculture.

The Indian government advised on 19 February 2009 that it had approved the use of the new health certificate, developed by AQIS, and based on Australia's existing food safety and animal health systems.

Trade in Australian dairy products stopped in late 2003 when India changed its import requirements. The average annual value of Australian dairy product exported to India in the five years prior to the market closure was over $6 million. The Australian Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Tony Burke, welcomed the news.

'I'm pleased that Australian producers will again have access to the Indian market for dairy products. This is the result of extensive efforts by the Australian Government and the dairy industry over the last several years,' Mr Burke said.

'The re-opening of trade is a further example of the growing agricultural relationship between Australia and India, and demonstrates the benefits of our ongoing cooperation on bilateral trade issues,' he said.

Indian importers are keen to take Australian high quality dairy products, and several Australian dairy exporters have already expressed a strong interest in exporting products for human consumption.

Australia is well placed to provide high value dairy products. There is real potential for the trade to grow, with increasing urbanisation in India and a growing middle class.   

Years of scientific expeditions to the Antarctic region have left their mark—tonnes of historic waste, ranging from rusty railway tracks to old tins of milk powder, and even dead huskies. Under the Madrid Protocol—the protocol to the Antarctic Treaty on environmental protection—this waste must be cleaned up and returned to its host countries.

Biosecurity Australia, AQIS and the Australian Antarctic Division of the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts are collaborating to develop measures to enable the repatriation of Australia's historic waste, including its adherent soil. Waste that is currently generated by Australia is either incinerated or returned to Australia for recycling or disposal.

Ms Patricia Thornhill from AQIS,  and Dr Brendan Smith and Dr Colin Grant from Biosecurity Australia (pictured), visited the Thala Valley and the abandoned Wilkes Station in Antarctica in January 2009 to examine the rubbish and assess how best to manage its disposal after its return to Australia.

Staff and clients of AQIS's Spotswood Animal Quarantine Station have teamed up with Jet Pets Animal Transport to help animals injured in the Victorian bushfires.

All uncollected travel crates from animals previously in quarantine have been donated to Animal Aid located in Coldstream, Victoria.

Staff at Spotswood were initially concerned about how to get the crates to Coldstream, but international animal shipping company Jet Pets Animal Transport kindly agreed to deliver the crates free of charge.

'When we learned that Spotswood was donating uncollected import crates to support the bushfire relief effort, we were only too happy to team up and transport the crates to Coldstream. I thought this was a fantastic initiative by AQIS and Jet Pets was proud to assist in this cause,' said Jet Pets' import manager, Danny Burkandt.

AQIS Spotswood Animal Quarantine Station and Jet Pets have a long history of working together, as many animals, when released from quarantine, are collected from the station and transported interstate by the company.

According to Spotswood manager Wayne Gundry, the staff at Spotswood were keen to help with the bushfire relief effort.

'We are passionate about caring for animals and we are pleased to have been able to team up with Jet Pets to deliver these crates in a time of such need.'

The cleaned and disinfected crates are being used by Animal Aid to house and transport injured wildlife and domestic pets who have been hurt in the bushfires.

Photo: AQIS officer Joanne Johnston and Jet Pets Transport Import Manager Danny Burkandt, with a shipment of clean and disinfected crates for the bushfire relief

In November 2008, six Indonesian veterinarians from different levels of government (central, provincial and district) conducted a two-week study tour of Australia to observe our decentralised animal health systems. Special reference was made to NSW and its Rural Lands Protection Board (RLPB) system as an example of delivery of veterinary services that might have particular relevance to Indonesia's decentralised animal health system.

The tour was part of an Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) project titled 'Improving Veterinary Service Delivery in a Decentralised Indonesia', and managed by Dr Helen Scott-Orr of the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI). The aim was to give vets an understanding of how Australia's animal health system fits together to deliver a high level of national biosecurity as well as effective emergency animal disease response.

There was a special focus on the emergency response arrangements under AUSVETPLAN and how disease surveillance and control strategies are administered by the states. Dr Tristan Jubb, who is a consultant to the project, accompanied the visitors on their NSW and ACT tour of farms, saleyards, abattoirs, veterinary schools, diagnostic laboratories, DPI and RLPB offices, Animal Health Australia, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and AQIS facilities.

The Indonesian vets were very impressed by the excellent networking across the whole system and the strong links between the private, government and university sectors. Their findings are already having an influence back in Indonesia. A very comprehensive and positive report was submitted by them to the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, and they will be presenting elements of the report to a national workshop in Bogor, West Java, on progressing the development of an INDOVETPLAN (which will be loosely modeled on AUSVETPLAN).

One of the participants, Dr Agung, has been promoting positive aspects of our system to the Balinese chapter of the Indonesian Veterinary Association and applying some of its principles in combating the current outbreak of rabies in Bali which was confirmed last November. This outbreak is stretching the local resources, demonstrating how much need there is for a clear cost-sharing and decision making system to combat emergency diseases.

More study tours are planned for 2009 and 2010.

Photo: Indonesian Veterinary Australian Study Tour visiting DAFF and AQIS in November 2008, from left to right: Dr Tristan Jubb, Livestock Health Systems Australia, Bendigo; Dr Aminurrahman, Provincial Livestock Services, Mataram, Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB); Dr Nilma Lubis, Directorate General of Livestock Services, Jakarta; Dr Anak Agung Gde Putra, Disease Investigation Centre, Denpasar (M); Dr Caravonica Salam, Directorate General of Livestock Services, Jakarta; Ir Zulqifli, District Livestock Services, Sumbawa NTB; Dr Khairul Akbar, District Livestock Services Bima NTB; Dr Amy Little, AQIS

The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) has been working closely with the MAF Biosecurity New Zealand (MAFBNZ) Cargo Directorate through a trans-Tasman Operational Working Group to build greater alignment and knowledge sharing between the two agencies.

Both parties have agreed to further this through investigating the possibility of a mutual recognition agreement. Mutual recognition is the system by which one government agency accepts that the systems and process operated by a second government agency achieves an equivalent outcome.

AQIS Manager, Sea Cargo Unit of Imports Clearance, Patricia Thornhill, has been liaising with MAFBNZ Cargo Directorate to agree the basis and terms for the operation of the trials. This has included a full documentation assessment of import conditions/standards and processes as well as site reviews both here and in New Zealand to get a broad picture of how and if these proposals might work.

Two initiatives have been proposed for trialling. The first is MAFBNZ inspection of used passenger vehicles in Japan for export to Australia. The proposal is to investigate having MAFBNZ inspectors perform the same offshore inspection they currently operate for NZ bound vehicles for those heading to Australia. At present vehicles bound for Australia are all inspected on arrival. AQIS aims to recognise New Zealand's Import Health Standard processes for used vehicles.

Patricia visited MAFBNZ in Auckland in September to review the used vehicle inspections regime at the Auckland wharf looking at both pre-cleared vehicles and the full inspection process.

The second initiative is AQIS inspection and assurance of nominated risk goods for export to New Zealand. This trial will look at international companies which have commercial stores in both Australia and New Zealand that hold goods in large distribution warehouses located in Australia. Any goods that are imported into Australia are subject to the AQIS import requirements and undergo an AQIS clearance process. These same goods are repackaged and forwarded on to commercial stores in New Zealand, where on arrival they are subject to MAFBNZ import requirements and are required to undergo the MAFBNZ clearance process. MAFBNZ seeks to recognise the AQIS import clearance procedures and assurances that the third party can demonstrate supply chain risk management and that the distribution centres have adequate measures in place to prevent cross contamination and re-infestation.

On Saturday 18 October, the first pre-inspected shipment arrived and representatives of MAFBNZ and a car carrier representative from Japan were present to witness the AQIS verification inspections. 'All inspections went well with the overall cleanliness of the vehicles being very good,' Patricia said.

Photo: MAFBNZ inspections being conducted on vehicles in Auckland, from left: Russell Killgour MAF, Ron Mathews MAF, Patricia Thornhill AQIS, Debbie Beer MAF and Clive Imrie MAF

An international food standards organisation has agreed to an Australian proposal aimed at ensuring that foods and food production systems meet requirements to protect the health of consumers and ensure fair practices in the food trade.

The proposed principles and guidelines put forward by Australia are intended to support the development and operation of national food control systems within the member countries of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, better known as Codex.

The proposal was agreed to at a meeting of the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems which took place in the Philippines in November 2008.

Broad representation

Australia and the Philippines Bureau of Agriculture Standards co-hosted the committee meeting, which was attended by 160 delegates from 59 countries. The broad representation of delegates helped to ensure the international standards being considered took into account the needs of developed and developing countries involved in the food production and processing sector.

In addition to considering Australia's proposal, the Codex committee:

• completed a generic model health certificate which will assist with the harmonisation of certificates used in the international trade of food
• developed principles and guidelines for auditing exporting countries' food inspection and certification systems to give importing countries confidence in the safety of imported food.  

Important standards previously developed by this committee include:

• guidelines for food import control systems (including risk based inspection of imported food)
• design, operation, assessment and verification of food import and export inspection and certification systems
• principles for the application of traceability/product tracing
• guidelines for the developing equivalence agreements
• guidelines on the judgement of equivalence of sanitary measures associated with food inspection and certification systems
• principles and guidelines for the exchange of information in food safety emergency situations
• guidelines for the exchange of information between countries on rejections of imported food
• guidelines for the design, production and use of generic official certificates including electronic certification when dealing with fraudulent certificates or product in international trade.   

About Codex

The Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems is one of 10 Codex committees and three taskforces that develop general standards and guidelines for a range of industries. Codex is the international food standards setting body recognised by the World Trade Agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) as being the reference point for food standards applied in international trade.

More information on Australia's participation in the Codex Alimentarius and its subsidiary bodies is available from Codex Australia or by email.

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