No jumping these Q’s as new detector dogs begin border patrols

Following their graduation in March, four new detector dogs are already protecting Australia from increased biosecurity threats.

Part of the ‘Q’ litter, the dogs named Quatro, Quizzy, Quigley and Quita have hit the ground running making important finds of biosecurity risk material at the border.

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Murray Watt said the new dogs are part of the Albanese Government’s $11.7 million commitment to increase the numbers of detector dog teams at the border over four years.

“Detector dogs and their handlers are on the front line of our biosecurity system which protects Australia from pests and diseases that pose a risk to our agricultural industry,” Minister Watt said.

“Our newest graduates are deployed to border screening locations in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney and they are already intercepting biosecurity risk goods.

“Biosecurity detector dogs are fast, versatile and mobile, and can effectively screen goods and people in range of environments, including airports, mail centres and seaports.

“Our government will continue to focus its efforts on strengthening Australia’s biosecurity system.

“Increasing the number of biosecurity detector dogs and their handlers is one way we are protecting our agricultural industry.

“We have provided funding over a four-year period to fulfill our government’s election commitment to provide an additional 20 biosecurity detector dogs and handlers by July 2024.

"I am very proud of our newest graduate detector dogs and am excited to see them further contribute to the excellent work our biosecurity detector dog teams deliver across Australia.”

Images of Quatro, Quizzy, Quigley and Quita are available here.

Fast Facts

• On average, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s detector dogs find up to 9,000 biosecurity risk items during their working life.
• The three most common items found are meat, seeds, and fruit.
• The biosecurity detector dog program is comprised of 54 operational detector dogs.
• Biosecurity detector dogs are trained to find nine target odour groups which translates into more than 200 different biosecurity risk commodities.
• These target odour groups include:
  • fresh fruit
  • fresh vegetables
  • fresh plant material
  • seeds
  • eggs
  • dairy
  • meat
  • Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs (BMSB)
  • queen bees.
• For more information on the DAFF’s detector dogs, visit: https://www.agriculture.gov.au/biosecurity-trade/policy/australia/detector-dogs.