There are increasing international concerns about food quality and safety, countries’ import requirements are becoming more demanding and exporters including Australia now need not only to declare they are free from plant and animal pests and diseases, they need to demonstrate it too. As a result, pest surveillance has become a critical tool to secure market access. Exporting countries now need to provide accurate, credible data with evidentiary chain to confirm freedom status. Technical equipment, like Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) have emerged as a powerful tool not only to collect information but also to improve the quality and application of the data collected.

CRCNPB PDA software developed with Visual CE was successfully tested during the 2007 post-border detection of Khapra beetle in suburban Western Australia by providing evidence of complete eradication via 1,273 trap inspections. This achievement was supported by GPS-located traps, digital voice navigation itineraries, digital time and date stamps, field printed barcode labels, site imagery, Google Maps integration all in a single hand-held unit.

New PDA hardware and software continues to be developed by the CRCNPB for use in other pest surveillance activities. These include, hazard site pest surveillance, stored grain fumigation monitoring, grain insect resistance testing and fruit fly phenology studies.