Primary Industries and Regions SA (PIRSA) Biosecurity SA division manages the risks to South Australia posed by animal and plant pests and diseases, food borne illnesses, and misuse of rural chemicals.

Services provided by Biosecurity SA include animal health (disease surveillance and control), plant health (keeping fruit fly and other plant pests out of the state), weed and pest animal control (natural resource management biosecurity), aquatic pest management, food safety, rural chemical operations and emergency management.

South Australia is the only Australian mainland state that is free of fruit fly, and one of the few places in the world free of the vine-destroying pest phylloxera.

Every year the state government spends about $5 million keeping fruit fly and other plant pests out of the state, through a range of prevention, detection and eradication measures managed by Biosecurity SA. These measures have made a significant contribution to the decrease in fruit fly outbreaks in South Australia, and helped safeguard South Australia’s status as a producer of premium food and wine from a clean environment.

Biosecurity SA has constructed a $3.8 million Sterile Insect Technology (SIT) facility in Port Augusta to help combat the threat of fruit fly and further South Australia’s premium, clean reputation.

• South Australia Biosecurity Policy 2017-2021 (PDF 7.3 MB)