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Managing Biosecurity in Victoria

Biosecurity is fundamental to the health, well-being and prosperity of all Victorians. Exotic pests and diseases can threaten the State’s agricultural sector, environment, horticulture and animal industries and potentially harm human health.

Victoria has a strong record of identifying and managing biosecurity risks, but our natural environment and primary industries constantly face new and emerging pest and disease threats. These bring new challenges and require new solutions.

A key focus for Agriculture Victoria is preventing a biosecurity emergency, for example a serious plant or animal disease incursion, which could affect Victoria and Australia. Agriculture Victoria works with jurisdictional partners across the country to ensure our agriculture industries continue to operate and trade without any debilitating pest and disease outbreaks.

Agriculture Victoria is responsible for delivering the state’s biosecurity programs including policy development, emergency response, containment, domestic quarantine, and the provision of commodity and area freedom certification.

The Victorian Chief Plant Health Officer Unit (CPHO) is Agriculture Victoria’s technical lead on plant health management in Victoria. The CPHO is responsible for these programs in a manner that aligns operational delivery with national expectations and the authorising powers provided by the Plant Biosecurity Act 2010 and Plant Biosecurity Regulations 2016.

To focus delivery of these programs the CPHO has, in collaboration with affected industry and community groups, developed clear policy positions on the management of a range of high risk plant biosecurity threats.

The purpose of these policies is to confirm the biosecurity status of these threats to Victoria and the role industry, community and government agencies must play in their management.

Read CPHO’s biosecurity policies.

PCN management policy [PDF File - 721.8 KB]

Grapevine phylloxera management policy [PDF File - 208.4 KB]

Fruit fly action plan [PDF File - 1.3 MB]

Other resources

A great resource for basic biosecurity information is Farm Biosecurity. This website is provided by our national partners Plant Health Australia and Animal Health Australia.

In Victoria there are systems and process in place to help protect both the animal and plant industries. Property identification codes help to identify where there are crops and livestock, this information can be key in preventing or limiting an outbreak of a disease.

Similarly the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) provides vital information on the movement of livestock and is a key disease prevention measure available to the animal industries.

Horses also present certain risks from a biosecurity perspective. Visit the Biosecurity for horses section to learn more. Wrong use of agricultural or veterinary chemicals can damage or contaminate land, animals, plants or produce. The Chemical Use section has a range of information to help landholders meet their obligations.

Media releases

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10 August 2018 : Victoria concludes precautionary surveillance for varroa mite detection
Agriculture Victoria’s varroa mite surveillance has concluded six weeks after the bee parasite was detected in cargo at the Port of Melbourne that had been unloaded from a ship.
9 August 2018 : Haloxyfop warning for canola growers
Agriculture Victoria is urging canola growers to limit their use of herbicides containing haloxyfop to before the 8 leaf growth stage or commencement of stem elongation.
18 July 2018 : New tool to tackle south-eastern tree pest
Finding the best way to reduce the spread of giant pine scale is now a click away with the release of a new video aimed at assisting gardeners, property owners and arborists in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs to manage the pest.
5 July 2018 : Help us stop varroa mite in its tracks
Agriculture Victoria is urging anyone with unregistered or feral bee hives within a surveillance zone around the Port of Melbourne to contact them.
29 June 2018 : Agriculture Victoria steps up surveillance after varroa mite detection
Agriculture Victoria and the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR) are responding to a detection of varroa mite at the Port of Melbourne.
26 June 2018 : Over 100 water hyacinth plants seized
Biosecurity Officers from Agriculture Victoria recently seized 144 water hyacinth plants from a property in Williams Landing, following the suspected illegal sale of the noxious weed.
15 June 2018 : Cereals go viral across Victoria, a new study shows
In a recently published study, scientists from Agriculture Victoria showed a higher incidence of yellow dwarf viruses in wheat and barley crops in Victoria than had previously been reported in the 1980s. This suggests that yield losses due to yellow dwarf infection may also have been higher than currently estimated.
1 June 2018 : Pest management workshops in the Wimmera
Wimmera farmers and advisers have the opportunity to attend one of four half-day pest management workshops in June, with expert entomologist Dr Siobhan de Little, from the Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research.
21 May 2018 : Phylloxera boundary change proposed for Yarra Valley
A survey of growers and vineyard managers has begun in the Yarra Valley region for their views on changing the existing boundary of the Maroondah Phylloxera Infested Zone (PIZ).
16 May 2018 : Swill feeding your pigs is dangerous and illegal
There was a time when feeding pigs swill was common practice, however, swill feeding is now illegal in Australia.

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