Mr POOLE - 2000-02-29
Quarantine matters have been in the news lately with the discovery of some visitors we have received from East Timor. Can the minister inform the House what these visitors were? What action has been taken to protect Territory industry from them, and is it true that your department has nick named these unwelcome visitors ‘Jack’?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I can’t attest to the last part of the question. However, I can say that, indeed, following the situation in East Timor the quarantine services in the Northern Territory have been placed under some considerable pressure. On 31 January this year, discovered in a shipment from East Timor were a number of these creatures commonly known as the Giant African Snail, or scientifically referred to as Achatina fulica Bowditch.
This particular animal has a very voracious appetite. It’s known to attack some 500 species of plants including Cucurbits, Breadfruit, Cassava and a number of valuable species. Also tree crops and papaya etc. It can also act as a vector of human diseases, a form of meningitis, the prefix to which I can’t pronounce, and the rat lungworm parasite. It travels as a hitchhiker, it can infest containers, pallets, motor vehicles. Not only does it travel as an adult snail, it can be contained as eggs in earth that may be imported accidentally.
This animal originates, as its name implies, from Africa, and it was first brought to the Pacific region into New Caledonia and the New Hebrides and Tahiti by the French looking to transport their fondness for escargot and, let me say, a snail of that size would provide a fair feed of escargot just by itself. It’s been discovered in Western Samoa, or American Samoa, and Gordonvale in Queensland in 1977 from where it was eradicated. The Japanese, during the war in the Pacific, carted it around to their various establishments as a food source and thus spread it through the Indonesian archipelago.
Just to give an example of how it breeds and how quickly it can breed, in Samoa in 1997 one million snails were collected by hand. In 1980, during 2 campaigns in June and July, about 135 tonnes of the snail were collected, or 5.4 million snails, and 2 months later 21 million snails were collected. In Fiji, 30 tonnes were collected by hand in one day.
As you can see it is fairly distinctive in appearance, and as I said, it is a particularly voracious animal and my quarantine officers are maintaining a constant alert and constant vigilance in relation to it. However, those quarantine restrictions have caused some problems to people transporting stuff back from East Timor, and as a result we held a workshop with interested parties in relation to that so that we could explain to them not only the problems that we see that an incursion of this animal could present us, but also the protocols in place and the protocols that need to be in place in relation to fumigation of containers, fumigation and inspection of motor vehicles, pallets, etc. Let me say the cooperation through those that are dealing with the East Timor situation, including the military and other civilian agencies, has been exemplary and one can only hope that given the situation in East Timor, not only this but other potential parasites, vectors and weeds, can be kept out.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I can’t attest to the last part of the question. However, I can say that, indeed, following the situation in East Timor the quarantine services in the Northern Territory have been placed under some considerable pressure. On 31 January this year, discovered in a shipment from East Timor were a number of these creatures commonly known as the Giant African Snail, or scientifically referred to as Achatina fulica Bowditch.
This particular animal has a very voracious appetite. It’s known to attack some 500 species of plants including Cucurbits, Breadfruit, Cassava and a number of valuable species. Also tree crops and papaya etc. It can also act as a vector of human diseases, a form of meningitis, the prefix to which I can’t pronounce, and the rat lungworm parasite. It travels as a hitchhiker, it can infest containers, pallets, motor vehicles. Not only does it travel as an adult snail, it can be contained as eggs in earth that may be imported accidentally.
This animal originates, as its name implies, from Africa, and it was first brought to the Pacific region into New Caledonia and the New Hebrides and Tahiti by the French looking to transport their fondness for escargot and, let me say, a snail of that size would provide a fair feed of escargot just by itself. It’s been discovered in Western Samoa, or American Samoa, and Gordonvale in Queensland in 1977 from where it was eradicated. The Japanese, during the war in the Pacific, carted it around to their various establishments as a food source and thus spread it through the Indonesian archipelago.
Just to give an example of how it breeds and how quickly it can breed, in Samoa in 1997 one million snails were collected by hand. In 1980, during 2 campaigns in June and July, about 135 tonnes of the snail were collected, or 5.4 million snails, and 2 months later 21 million snails were collected. In Fiji, 30 tonnes were collected by hand in one day.
As you can see it is fairly distinctive in appearance, and as I said, it is a particularly voracious animal and my quarantine officers are maintaining a constant alert and constant vigilance in relation to it. However, those quarantine restrictions have caused some problems to people transporting stuff back from East Timor, and as a result we held a workshop with interested parties in relation to that so that we could explain to them not only the problems that we see that an incursion of this animal could present us, but also the protocols in place and the protocols that need to be in place in relation to fumigation of containers, fumigation and inspection of motor vehicles, pallets, etc. Let me say the cooperation through those that are dealing with the East Timor situation, including the military and other civilian agencies, has been exemplary and one can only hope that given the situation in East Timor, not only this but other potential parasites, vectors and weeds, can be kept out.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016