Subcommittee on National Plant Health Surveillance (SNPHS) Reference Standard No. 1

This Reference Standard (RS) supports the development of nationally consistent Technical Reference Guides (TRGs) to underpin plant health surveillance activities in Australia. TRGs play a key role in supporting coordinated surveillance approaches across jurisdictions and sectors, and in ensuring surveillance activities align with contemporary science, best practice, and national and international obligations. 

The purpose of this RS is to provide clear guidance to authors on the requirements for developing a TRG for plant health surveillance. This RS establishes a consistent framework to ensure that TRGs: 
• Are developed using contemporary science and accepted surveillance practices. 
• Include all information necessary to support effective surveillance activities. 
• Are structured and presented in a nationally consistent manner. 

A TRG provides direction and guidance for conducting surveillance for a specific plant pest or group of plant pests (“pest” includes insects, mites, nematodes, and pathogens). It outlines recommended surveillance methodologies and may also include relevant information on pest biology, taxonomy, identification, and sample processing where these support surveillance outcomes. TRGs are primarily intended for use by jurisdictional government departments and national plant biosecurity surveillance programs, and may also support surveillance activities undertaken by industry, academia, and research organisations. TRGs serve as the primary reference for the development of surveillance plans and contribute to a coordinated national plant health surveillance system.