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Introducing Quarantine
What is quarantine?
The scope of the problem
Types of quarantine
Constant surveillance
History of quarantine
The word quarantine comes from the Italian quaranti giorni, meaning 'forty days'. When bubonic plague swept through Europe in the 14th century, the government of Venice required ships to anchor away from the city for 40 days before they could unload passengers or cargo. The authorities thought 40 days would be enough time for any disease to be identified and either treated or pass through its normal course. All ships under quarantine had to fly a yellow flag.
What is quarantine?
Quarantine is designed to prevent the introduction, establishment, or spread of animal, plant or human pests and diseases.
Pests and diseases could be carried into Australia by people, by animals, in animal products such as meat, in plants or in plant products such as timber, or soil. All of these must undergo quarantine inspection and may require treatment, or in some cases destruction.
Australia has the toughest quarantine standards in the world and is free from serious plant and animal diseases found in other parts of the world, such as rabies and foot and mouth disease.
Quarantine controls at Australia's borders minimise the risk of exotic pests and diseases entering Australia and protects our $32 billion agriculture export industries as well as our environment, tourism industries and lifestyle.
The scope of the problem
During the voyage of the Second Fleet to Australia, infectious diseases, poor diet and unhygienic conditions caused the deaths of a quarter of the passengers. Of the thousand convicts and crew who sailed from England, only 750 landed at Sydney Cove, many of them helplessly ill. That journey from England to Australia took 250 days.
Today, a flight from England to Australia takes about 24 hours. Travel time from Asia and America are much less. These shorter travelling times mean there is no longer a quarantine period on journeys to Australia.
Each year, nearly 12 million passengers pass through quarantine on arrival at Australian airports and seaports, 1.8 million cargo containers are inspected and about 150 million items of international mail enter Australia. All of these arrivals pose a risk for human health, our agricultural industries and our natural environment.
Types of quarantine
Quarantine works in a number of different ways in Australia - border controls look after the clearance of passengers and cargo into Australia, while animal, plant and human quarantine look at the scientific risks of particular pests and diseases and what actions need to be taken to prevent them coming to Australia.
Border control
Border controls are carried out at all entry points into Australia, including airports, seaports, international mail centres and air courier depots. Passenger clearance and cargo clearance are the two main types of quarantine controls at these entry points. Quarantine officers use a range of techniques including detector dogs, x-ray machines, visual inspection, risk assessment, surveillance and scientific support to stop exotic pests and diseases entering our country.
Animal quarantine
Animal quarantine applies to all kinds of animals from cats and dogs to insects, fish, birds and larger animals. Animals coming into Australia must spend time at specially equipped quarantine stations to ensure that they are free of disease before being allowed into the country.
Plant quarantine
All plants or parts of plants such as fruits, seeds, cuttings, bulbs and corms, as well as things made from wood or bamboo, must be examined and if necessary, treated. Living plants must be kept at special plant quarantine stations when they arrive in Australia to make sure they are not carrying pests or diseases.
Human quarantine
Quarantine officers monitor reports about the health status of passengers arriving in Australia by aircraft and shipping vessels, to ensure that they are not suffering from diseases. A number of infectious diseases can be spread to other people by insects, such as mosquitoes, and, if allowed to get into Australia, would be very difficult to eradicate. All international airports in Australia have a surveillance monitoring program to ensure that insect carriers of human disease are quickly detected and destroyed.
Constant surveillance
With close proximity to neighbouring Asian and Pacific countries, being surrounded by 36,000kms of coastline and with people, cargo, mail and imported goods arriving every day, quarantine surveillance in Australia is more important than ever before. The men and women who work for AQIS are on duty 24 hours a day, every day of the year.