30 January 2013
This Biosecurity Advice invites stakeholders to provide comments on the Gamma irradiation as a treatment to address pathogens of animal biosecurity concern - Draft review by 30 March 2013.
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has completed a draft review of gamma irradiation as a treatment to address pathogens of animal biosecurity concern. Gamma irradiation at 50 kilogray (kGy) is currently accepted as a biosecurity treatment by the department to inactivate pathogens of animal biosecurity concern in products of animal origin.
The draft review takes into account current scientific evidence, standards and recommendations of international bodies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organization, and other balanced sources of information and opinion about the radiosensitivity of pathogens.
Recommendations on appropriate irradiation doses needed to inactivate bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens, and parasites, in products of animal origin are provided. The draft review concluded that while the use of gamma irradiation remains an effective biosecurity treatment to address pathogens of animal biosecurity concern, and a dose of 50 kGy remains as the current standard, it may be possible to use lower levels of irradiation to address pathogens of animal biosecurity concern and still protect Australia’s favourable animal health status in cases where the pathogens of concern are known.
The department invites comments on the Gamma irradiation as a treatment to address pathogens of animal biosecurity concern - Draft review.
Comments should be submitted by 30 March 2013 to:
Animal Biosecurity
Department of Agriculture
GPO Box 858
CANBERRA ACT 2601
Telephone: +61 2 6272 4465
Facsimile: +61 2 6272 3399
Email:
Animal Biosecurity
Animal Biosecurity will consider all submissions received before finalising the review of existing policy.
Please pass this notice to other interested parties. If those parties wish to be included in future communications on this matter they should contact Animal Biosecurity at the above address.
Confidentiality
Stakeholders are advised that, subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 and the Privacy Act 1988, all submissions received in response to Biosecurity Advices will be publicly available and may be listed or referred to in any papers or reports prepared on the subject matter.
The Commonwealth reserves the right to reveal the identity of a respondent unless a request for anonymity accompanies the submission. Where a request for anonymity does not accompany the submission the respondent will be taken to have consented to the disclosure of his or her identity for the purposes of Information Privacy Principle 11 of the Privacy Act. The contents of the submission will only be treated as confidential if they are marked ‘confidential’ and they can be classified as such in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act.