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Quarantine Hits
With close proximity to neighbouring Asian and Pacific countries, being surrounded by 36,000kms of coastline, and with people, cargo, mail and imported goods arriving every day, quarantine surveillance in Australia is more important than ever before. The more than 3,000 men and women who work for AQIS are on duty 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Here is a sample of the work they do.
Also on this page: • Well spotted! • Hidden treasure
Fruit flies know no borders
The Philippines fruit fly could cost
Australia millions in lost fruit
production and eradication
AQIS officer Anh Nguyen recently intercepted a live specimen of the exotic Philippines fruit fly at Melbourne airport. The identification was confirmed after Anh collected insects from personal effects containing plant material and dried fish and forwarded the pests to AQIS entomologists for identification.
The Philippines fuit fly, Bactrocera philippinensis, is colourful and about the size of an average housefly. It injects its eggs into fruit such as mangoes and papaya and the feeding larvae damage the fruit.
The importance of this seizure and others like it should not be underestimated. The invasion and establishment of this pest would greatly impact our horticultural industries, potentially costing millions of dollars in reduced and lost produce and eradication.
In November 1997, there was an incursion of Philippines fruit fly in Darwin. This saw the establishment of an Exotic Fruit Fly program to eradicate the fly from the Northern Territory. Strategies put in place included:
- declaration of a quarantine area covering over 6,000 square kilometres
- check points to prevent infested fruit from leaving the quarantine area
- verification of eradication by trapping and fruit collection.
The incursion put most of the fruit and vegetable produce grown in Australia at risk. It cost the Australian and state governments $5 million and two years to eradicate the fly.
Mark Whattam, AQIS Operational Science Program Manager, awarded Anh a certificate of recognition for the find. This recognition helps to support the crucial border detection work that leads to interceptions.
AQIS entomologist Luke Watson explained the significance of the find.
'This little critter could cause multi-million dollar export industries like mangoes and papaya to collapse very rapidly. The Queensland Government went as far as introducing legislation to prevent an outbreak in the Northern Territory from crossing the border. Tropical Australia definitely doesn't want this pest as it is very aggressive and rated as an extreme risk by Biosecurity Australia.
'Although this fruit fly was found on some dried fish, there was also some plant material in the suitcase, which is where the fly probably came from. Their most likely method of transport is through infested fruit—mainly out of the Philippines. But this just shows that keen-eyed AQIS officers need to be alert for anything and why Anh's find is so significant.'
Well spotted!
AQIS officer Phillip Adams checks
out the multicoloured Asian
lady beetles
The catchcry may well have been: 'ladybird, ladybird fly away home' when Darwin-based AQIS officer, Phillip Adams discovered some unusual specimens on the walls of a crate of personal effects air-freighted from USA.
'We found about twenty lady beetles.* Most were pupating on the side of the crate,' Phillip said, 'so they'd obviously been there for a while.' Three recently emerged adult specimens were retrieved for identification.
With all Darwin's entomologists away in the field or interstate, the remote diagnostic microscope was put to good use. An image of the beetle was transmitted electronically to Sydney where AQIS NT entomologist, Mary Finlay-Doney and NSW-based colleague, Ben Boyd, were able to identify it as Harmonia axyridis; commonly known as the multicoloured Asian lady beetle.
Lady beetles are often used as biological controls for aphids and other nasties that affect commercial fruit production. Their voracious appetite is seen as a good thing in these circumstances but it can and has led to problems when H. axyridis has been let loose outside its native environment.
Originating in Asia, the lady beetle was released in North America and parts of Europe as a predator. Unfortunately it outcompeted native lady beetles, was shown to attack fruit for nectar when aphids and other insects were in short supply, and formed dense swarms that settled inside and outside buildings, causing inconvenience and distress to householders.
Over time, it crossed European borders and entered the United Kingdom in 2004 where it was described in the press as: 'the most invasive ladybird on earth'.
Harmonia axyridis is exotic to Australia and AQIS is working hard to keep it that way.
*Lady beetle, ladybug and ladybird are all interchangeable common names used to describe beetles in the family Coccinellidae.
Birds nest takes sea route
AQIS officer Karl Macievic with
the vehicle that brought a partial
bird's next from Singapore
The Port of Melbourne is Australia's busiest port for containerised and general cargo and AQIS officers stationed at the Port conduct a broad range of surveillance and inspection activities. These include clearance of break bulk cargo such as new and used agricultural machinery, cars, timber and steel. They also to external container inspection activity including surveillance for giant African snail (GAS).
Staff cover a lot of ground between the Port's docks and are responsible for monitoring and surveillance activities at Webb Dock East and West and Appleton Dock to help minimise the risk of quarantine risk material entering the country.
Last April alone the team inspected 860 timber lots, nearly 150 machines and 77 used cars, as well as conducting over 240 GAS inspections. The diversity of the tasks means AQIS officers must be on constant lookout for QRM which takes many different forms, from debris and soils to insect infestations and plant material.
AQIS officers Karl Macievic and Adam Pyman proved the effectiveness of operations with their recent discovery of a partial birds nest in an imported car engine bay. Nests are a risk due to the plant and residual bird material they may contain.
This vehicle, along with 457 others in the consignment, was discharged from the vessel Positive Leader at Webb Dock West. The cargo was loaded in Singapore where it had been stored on the waterfront after arriving from Italy.
The partial nest was removed on site and destroyed, with all other vehicles being closely examined. AQIS and industry depend on this level of vigilance to minimise the risk of unwanted material entering through our ports.
Hidden treasure
Precious stones worth thousands of dollars were uncovered in Adelaide by AQIS when an ill-fated importer attempted to smuggle a batch of gems into Australia by concealing them inside a traditional African carving.
The exceptionally rare jewels were uncovered by AQIS officer Rene Hilditch during routine inspection of air-cargo consignments in Adelaide.
Rene was inspecting a wooden artefact, which appeared to be carved from a solid piece of timber, when he became suspicious as to why someone would want to air-freight a small carving all the way from Africa.
Closer inspection of the carving revealed what looked like insect entry holes, soil and other unidentifiable material. The importer was asked to attend the AQIS inspection facility to discuss treatment options to ensure the carving did not introduce quarantine pests or disease.
The importer appeared to be very nervous when told a quarantine treatment would be required before she could take possession of the carving. Concerned the treatment would damage the concealed stones the importer advised that the carving was indeed hollow and contained tanzanite stones. Tanzanite is very rare and can only be found in one place in the world—Africa’s Rift Valley, 40 kilometres from the base of Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro.
The matter was referred to Customs who deconstructed the carving revealing 17 tanzanite stones valued at $14,000. Customs imposed a revenue penalty on the importer for making a false declaration.
The wooden carving was forfeited to AQIS by the importer and after being treated will make an interesting display piece in the Adelaide office—demonstrating that diamonds (or in this case tanzanite) are not always a girl’s best friend.