eBay could cause biosecurity risk

Raw mohair from goats can be bought by Australians on eBay despite being uncleaned, raising biosecurity fears.

Raw goat mohair from China is being advertised on eBay as fake hair for dolls, raising biosecurity concerns it could be imported into Australia.

The ad on eBay offers lengths of mohair raw wool and states “it is raw wool and has not been cleaned or combed”. Free economy delivery is offered from outside Australia, and Australian bidders are not excluded.

Greg Roberts, from McMahon’s Creek in Victoria, discovered the ad while looking at mohair prices on line to try to gauge their value, and reported it to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry on August 8.

Raw mohair from China, which has FMD, is being sold on eBay and could be imported into Australia.

Mr Roberts said his concerns centred around the lack of cleanliness of the samples and said he saw photos on eBay which had “dirt, seeds and faeces in them”.

He said he was worried about animal diseases in the dirt and faeces, such as foot and mouth disease, which in endemic in China.

But when he received a response a week later telling him to phone a hotline he felt his report wasn’t taken seriously or dealt with expediently.

“I tried calling the Redline number provided 10 times and it just rings out,” Mr Roberts said.

“This is a very serious breach of our biosecurity and it looks like the department (DAFF) do not care about the welfare of our sheep industry or our Agriculture industry.”

Mr Roberts said he did receive further contact from the department, but only after he had forwarded the generic initial email response to Minister Agriculture Murray Wattwho earlier this month launched a new biosecurity task force.

Mr Roberts said he saw “at least half a dozen” Chinese companies on eBay selling raw mohair, which is being marketed as fake hair for dolls.

A DAFF spokesman said the department has been made aware of potential import of raw wool from China via email but due to lack of information in the original request, the client was directed to the department’s Redline.

“All imported unprocessed wool products are subject to intervention on arrival in Australia” the spokesman said.

“This includes treatment and/or inspection with the specific import requirements varying depending on quantity and arrival method.”

The spokesman said the department was unable to say publicly how many wool consignments were refused entry.

He said the department referred matters of noncompliance “when given specific details of non-compliant imports”.