eDNA Innovations for Biosecurity Identification

Image caption (right): The owner and manager of the aquarium fish facility were actively involved in preparing samples for testing, which was an essential component of collaborating and communicating science with an active importer to Australia.

Dr McCoy from Star Trek used a fictional futuristic device called a tricorder to examine patients in an instant. Imagine if we could build something like the tricorder to test for pests and diseases in plants and animals coming into Australia?

Sound farfetched? It’s not as far away as you might think. Recent advances in molecular screening methods have revolutionised the way biological surveys are undertaken by providing users a cheap, fast and highly reliable method that increases certainty and accuracy of detection.

The Department of Agriculture, through the Biosecurity Innovation Program, has teamed up with Professor Dianne Gleeson’s University of Canberra EcoDNA team to research the latest environmental DNA (eDNA) technology, and to understand how we can most effectively and efficiently apply it to biosecurity risk management.

The project tests the use of eDNA (commonly shed by organisms into their environment in the form of skin, urine, hair, and other secretions) and suitable technology to detect priority pests, parasites and diseases of importance to Australian biosecurity.

For example, a small water sample can be taken from a bag of imported ornamental fish on-arrival and added to a portable eDNA device no bigger than a mobile phone. The device will then identify both pest fish and diseases and give you a result in as little as 20 minutes.

We are currently testing suitable technology that could be used by Australian biosecurity in pre-border, border and post-border scenarios. This will determine the possibility of including eDNA screening methods in our future biosecurity repertoire.

Testing eDNA at border control for example, may in the future provide officers with a quick, accurate and simple triage tool to detect high risk pest hitchhikers that could be entering the country with imported products.