Case Glossary

Any material that originates from, or is produced by a living animal, including hair, fur, skin, faeces, shell, blood and fluids, feathers, honey, flesh and bone.

The Risks of Animal Material
Products derived from animals pose a significant biosecurity risk. All animal parts/products such as animal tissues and blood can introduce serious animal pathogens. Many viruses and bacteria are able to survive for long periods in tissue, blood and mucous.

Biosecurity Risk Material (BRM) includes but is not limited to:

1. Animal Material (e.g. hair, fur, skin, faeces, shell, blood and fluids, feathers, honey, flesh, bone, horn)
2. Live Animals (e.g. rodents, reptiles, geckos, frogs and birds)
3. Food scraps (e.g. peel, shells, skins and wrappers)
4. Plant material (e.g. reproductive material (e.g. pollen, spores, seeds, flowers, fruits, and vegetables), fresh material (e.g. leaves, gum and stems) and dry material (e.g. pods, bark, branches, roots, straw, wood)
5. Live plants (e.g. plants, weeds, sprouted seeds and propagatable material)
6. Live insects (e.g. timber pests (e.g. termites, ants and larvae), stored product pests (e.g. beetles and larvae), insects seeking refuge (e.g. ants, bees, wasps, moths and spiders), hitchhikers (e.g. grasshoppers and butterflies) and plant pests (e.g. fruit flies, mites, thrips, etc)
7. Evidence of live insects (e.g. wasps nests, mud nests, wings, shells and casings)
8. Snails and slugs
9. Evidence of snails and slugs (e.g. shells, eggs and trail marks)
10. Plant pathogens (e.g. fungi, nematodes, bacteria, viruses and mould)
11. Soil (e.g. dirt, mud, gravel, clay and sand)
12. Water (e.g. pools of water, water in receptacles, articles used with water)

A consignment is considered to be exported either:

1. when it is lodged with the freight forwarder, shipping company/airline, charter operator or an appointed agent in the place of origin, for ultimate destination in an Australian territory
2. when it is shipped on board the vessel for an ultimate destination in an Australian territory, or
3. when it is packed in a container and sealed in preparation for transport for an ultimate destination in an Australia territory.

See export

FCX is a term used to describe containerised consignments that have multiple suppliers and only one importer, these consignments are usually dealt with in the same way as normal full container load consignments.

Food scraps may be any biosecurity risk material of plant or animal origin and include any discarded food items that contaminate imported cargo. This includes but is not limited to fruit peelings, meat scraps, seeds and pips. Food items may carry animal or plant diseases or be infested with live insects.

Full Container Load (FCL) is a term used to describe consignments that have a single supplier/sender and a single importer/receiver.

ISPM 15’ is the acronym used for ‘International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures Publication No. 15: Guidelines for Regulating Wood Packaging Material in International Trade'. The French NIMP 15 version and Spanish NIMF version of the acronym are also approved for use in international trade. This standard is available from the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) website

Any animal that is alive, unintentionally entering Australia as a hitchhiker via sea or airfreight. They include but are not limited to mammals (e.g. rats), amphibians (e.g. toads and frogs), reptiles, birds and other vertebrates.

The Risks of Live Animals

Live animals can introduce exotic diseases into Australian territory. Live animals can be infested with parasites such as ticks, mites and fleas, which can act as vectors that transmit disease.

Unacceptable packing materials can be straw, peat, hay, chaff, used fruit and vegetable cartons etc.

Unacceptable packing materials include bark, chaff, hay, rice hulls, sand bags, soil bags, used empty bags, used egg cartons, used flower cartons, used fruit and vegetable cartons, used meat cartons, used tyres and compressed non-timber plant materials (including agricultural waste).

The wet bulb depression (the maximum decrease allowed between the dry and the wet bulb temperatures) is less than 2°C (3.6°F).

Treatment time does not commence until the temperature and humidity in the chamber have stabilised and the core temperature of the timber has reached at least 74°C (165°F).

The duration of the treatment will depend on the thickness of the timber (refer to the table below). 'Thickness' is defined here as the distance between spacers in the stack, regardless of the thickness of the individual boards.

Table

1. If the thickness of the timber is not stated on the treatment certificate or is unknown, a verification inspection at an appropriate approved arrangement site is required to ensure that the timber has at least one dimension less than or equal to 200mm [refer to point 2 below], and to verify that the treatment has been effective.
   

2. Where all the dimensions of the timber are greater than 200mm mandatory treatment is required. The treatment duration must exceed 18 hours once a core temperature of 74°C has been reached.
   

Treatment certificates and phytosanitary certificates must include the duration of treatment, the treatment temperature and the maximum thickness of timber being treated. If the treatment certificate is issued by a treatment provider accredited under a Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment recognised offshore government program or its equivalent, the certificate must also include the name of the program under which the treatment provider is accredited and the facility registration number or treatment provider number issued under that program.