Using a register to manage visitor entry into your vineyard is an important biosecurity tool. Your register is essentially a tool for contact tracing if you have a biosecurity incident.
There are some important aspects to consider when setting up a visitor register.
- Ensure you collect the visitors name, company, mobile number, email and who they are visiting onsite. Other details such as the date and the time in/out are vital to help identify when the visitor was on your property.
- Ask questions to help you decide whether you will allow the visitor onto your vineyard from a biosecurity risk perspective. Your key initial questions for vineyard visitors should be:
- Have you visited a vineyard, or has your vehicle, machinery or equipment been in a vineyard in the past 29 days?
- What wine regions have you visited?
- Ensure you have a staff member present when the visitor arrives to review the information the visitor has provided.
“Asking the above questions is a vital step prior to allowing any visitor onto your vineyard. Assessing the responses on the register turns this into a powerful biosecurity risk management tool,” said Suzanne McLoughlin, Acting CEO of Vinehealth Australia.
“If you ask the questions but fail to check the responses, you could be allowing entry to visitors who pose a high risk of introducing an unwanted pest, disease or weed onto your property, such as phylloxera.”
If your visitor answers yes to having been in a vineyard in the past 29 days, you need to ensure the wine regions they have visited are not Phylloxera Infested Zones or Phylloxera Risk Zones by using the most current version of the Phylloxera Management Zones map.
Click here to download Vinehealth Australia’s Visitor Register template.
Vinehealth encourages the use of any form of register to capture vital details of visitors to your site – these may be hard copy registers, electronic sign in registers such as on iPads, or sign-in apps.
It’s important to ensure the questions on your sign-in register reflect the most current scientific knowledge. South Australia growers and wineries can contact Vinehealth Australia for assistance.