Biosecurity management: practical prevention measures

July 12th, 2013

Prevention is cost-effective

Prevention is by far the most efficient and cost-effective way to manage weeds, pests and diseases. Once they’ve become established, they can easily degrade capability, damage a company’s reputation and require years of costly control, follow-up and monitoring. These risks are best managed through a combination of practical prevention strategies.

What preventative steps can we take at the operational level?

Weeds, pests and diseases often spread through contaminated vehicles, machinery and loads. It’s therefore important to minimise the opportunity for new weeds and pests to spread into an area whilst also restricting the spread of any existing infestations.

Some of the key measures that you can use to prevent the introduction and spread of biosecurity issues are as follows:

  • abide by customs and quarantine requirements for imported cargo and materials
  • maintain vehicle, plant and equipment hygiene, both on your property and for those entering and leaving your property
  • clean potentially contaminated vehicles, plant and equipment of all soil, vegetation and other potential contaminants before moving between work sites or into a ‘clean’ area
  • establish movement corridors within which all vehicle movements can be concentrated so that the emergence of weed and pest issues can be more easily monitored and controlled
  • before purchase, consider the hygiene of any loads and materials that you plan to bring onto your property (such as soil, gravel, sand, water, construction materials, agricultural materials and livestock)
  • seek hygiene declarations and implement quarantine practices for all such loads and materials before they are delivered and unloaded
  • utilise native plants or species locally grown where possible and revegetate disturbed sites and bare ground to prevent further opportunities for weed establishment.

A range of public washdown facilities are available at various locations throughout Queensland. Click here to find out more about public washdown facilities.

What wash down and inspection procedures do you have in place? Are they effective in addressing your risks?