Overview
Physical barriers are used to exclude pests at the scale of individual commodity units.
- Examples include individual fruit bagging during production, and requirements to prevent the entry of hitchhikers into sea containers, unit loading devices for airfreight or heavy equipment.
- Evaluating the efficacy of this measure requires demonstrating that protecting individual units sufficiently reduces infestation rates, especially under commercial conditions.
- Where protected units are a standard industry practice, these activities can be considered when conducting a pest risk assessment. They can also be used as a phytosanitary measure.
- Assurance can be achieved through inspection of the production system practices or the packed commodity by authorised personnel, with oversight by the NPPO or relevant authority of the exporting jurisdiction.
Evidence to support efficacy
Experimental evidence can be used to demonstrate that protecting individual commodity units limits the risk of infestation to the level required. An example of this would be demonstrating the reduction in oviposition marks in bagged relative to unbagged fruit. The commercial and environmental conditions that may reduce the efficacy of the measure also need to be considered. For a sea containers, evidence is required that seals will prevent the entry of hitchhiker pests of quarantine concern.
Applying the measure
How it is used
Practices that protect units from pest infestation can be considered during pest risk assessment and as a phytosanitary measure. Fruit bagging during production is a typical example of a protected units measure, although it is often not commercially feasible to apply. This measure has been used for sea containers, unit loading devices for airfreight and for the shipment of machinery and other heavy equipment to prevent the entry of hitchhikers of quarantine concern. For sea containers and unit loading devices it may include the sealing of air vents with insect-proof mesh.
Use with other measures
Where protected units measures are not sufficiently effective at excluding pests they can be combined with other measures that minimise exposure to the pest.
When applied post-production, protected units can be combined with segregation and limit exposure time to pest measures to further reduce infestation risk.
Similar measures
This measure reduces phytosanitary risk in the same way as protected facilities and safeguarding measures, but these differ in the scale at which they are applied. Protected facilities apply to secure pest exclusionary structures, such as a secure packing facility, whereas safeguarding measures apply to the consignment. The secure transportation of a commodity within a sea container falls under the concept of the safeguarding measure. Whereas requirements related to the management and movement of the sea containers themselves are classified under the protected units measure.
Assurance of correct implementation
For assurance, pest exclusionary barriers and associated practices may be inspected and audited by authorised personnel, with oversight by the NPPO or relevant authority of the exporting jurisdiction, to ensure compliance with the requirements of the measure.