Efficacy of Visual Inspections at Detecting Non-Biosecurity Compliant Goods
Tender ID: 389669
Tender Details
Tender Description
This procurement relates to the purchase of research to design and conduct experiments to assess the performance (efficacy) of biosecurity visual inspection for pests on imported fruit and vegetables and assess how key variables may influence on the performance of visual inspection using the existing protocols.
This research will support an extensive existing programme of visual inspections within the biosecurity systems at the pre-border, border and post-border space.
Visual inspection is an important tool in the management of biosecurity risks. Work completed by the USDA on inspection efficacy for fruit fly infestations suggests that actual inspection efficacies may be far less than expected.
Research by the Centre of Excellency for Biosecurity Risk Assessment (CEBRA) in Australia was conducted to gain a better understanding using live pests. The findings could not be validated as the presence of the pests could not be confirmed at the time of inspection.
Further anecdotal evidence from surveys completed by the MPI monitoring group suggests that existing expectations about the efficacy of visual inspection on many pathways may be too high.
There is a clear data gap regarding the performance of visual inspection and contributing variables. Further research on these aspects will provide confidence in our biosecurity visual inspection systems and provide solutions for their improvement, as applicable.
MPI is looking for credible providers who have the capability, experience, facilities and networks to deliver our requirements of visual analyses, efficacy testing and statistical analysis. Suppliers need to have a good track record in the management of similar research and sufficient resources to deliver the project on time.
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