Enhancing Vegetable Biosecurity
AUSVEG and the Victorian Government are piloting anonymous surveillance and reporting in the vegetable industry to support early detection and management of exotic pests and diseases that are currently not in Australia or not in an individual grower’s specific production region.
The pilot provides a secure process for growers or their agronomist to confidentially submit reports and samples of suspect or potential exotic pests and diseases to Agriculture Victoria’s Crop Health Services (CHS) for diagnosis.
Advantages:
· Your report is managed confidentially, protecting your privacy
· Your business can continue trading without regulatory intervention while diagnosis is being completed.
· The only time identifiable business information is shared to Agriculture Victoria’s Biosecurity Services is for a confirmed exotic detection (see below)
· The vegetable industry will benefit from more suspected pest and disease samples coming in earlier, so if a rare case of an exotic is detected, it can be managed early, with an increased chance of eradication and protecting your crops.
The diagnosis will:
o exclude suspected exotic pests or diseases at no cost to you
o enable you to cost effectively seek further diagnostics (at your expense) if your business requires advice to further inform pest/diseases management
What happens with my report?
This flow of events below explains how the report will be processed, what actions will be taken and contact made.
Do you suspect an exotic pest in your crop?
There are free diagnostic resources available - get in touch with VegNET Gippsland Regional Development Officer Bonnie Dawson to find out more details and get access to the form to accompany your samples.
