Student stopped in effort to protect Australia’s ag industries

A sniffer dog has uncovered more than 2kg of cooked meats, eggs and flowers in an international student’s luggage at Adelaide Airport. See the details.

An international student’s visa has been cancelled after they were caught trying to bring more than 2kg of cooked meats, eggs and flowers into Adelaide airport.

After biosecurity detector dog Ghost, with handler Rebecca, sniffed out the items, the passenger was referred for additional screening where the student was found with 2.7kg of cooked meat, believed to be pork, 301g of cooked egg, and six fresh frangipani flowers.

An international student's visa was cancelled after they were found with cooked meat, eggs and flowers at Adelaide airport.

The passenger was issued with a $3756 infringement notice for the breach.

Biosecurity and compliance deputy secretary Tina Hutchison stressed the importance of travellers declaring all produce items, and said people would not be penalised for declared items even if they were not allowed into Australia.

“Our frontline biosecurity officers and our detector dog teams go above and beyond to protect Australia’s agricultural industries, our food supply chain, our environment, and our unique way of life,” Tina said.

Biosecurity dog Ghost.

“Ghost is one of the dogs funded through an $11.7 million investment in our detector dog program in 2022–23. In just his first year, Ghost has stopped nearly 400 biosecurity risk items from entering Australia.”

Last year, nearly 400,000 biosecurity risk items were detected at Australia’s international airports.