There has been an increase in the volume of samples of significant exotic plant pests being intercepted in imported goods and conveyances in the last few years. These include a recent escalation in the number of key priority pests being intercepted at the border on fresh produce (including nursery stock), stored products, timber, hitchhikers and vertebrates as part of the pet trade. There have also been a number of key pathway changes that have been observed.

Overall, the total number of border samples of exotic plant pests being submitted to the department’s laboratories are slowly increasing but the number of surveillance samples are increasing by 20% year on year over the last 3 years. There has been a number of significant plant pests detected from surveillance samples, including the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB). New surveillance programs such as the Hitchhiker Surveillance Program have been implemented recently and this has led to new pest diagnostic requirements including a range of new technologies, such as enhanced molecular techniques such as eDNA and MinION.