The creepiest items confiscated at Australian airports

news.com.au

23 Mar, 2018 01:20 AM2 mins to read

Bizarre items intercepted at Australian airports last year. Photo / Supplied

Last year Australian border forces intercepted around 340,000 biosecurity risk items trying to be smuggled into the country, with 120,000 found at Sydney airport alone.

In 2017 the biosecurity team at Sydney Airport seized more than 20,000kg of meat, around 7000kg of seafood, 3000kg of seeds and 2000kg of bananas — but its not just food that they have to deal with.

With such a high number of items seized each day, border authorities come across some truly bizarre and downright creepy finds.

Duck tongues, chicken feet, cooked eggs, barbecued rat, lizard's feet and skinned frogs are just some of the items that people have tried to sneak into the country.

Australian Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources David Littleproud said Australian biosecurity teams stop more than 5000 threats each week at airports, mail centres and seaports, any of which could devastate our ecosystem.

This giant African snail also hitched a ride to Australia. Photo / Supplied

"Any one of the intercepted items could be carrying deadly pests or diseases which could decimate Australian farming and our environment — or carry a disease affecting humans," he said, speaking at Sydney Airport yesterday.

"Agriculture, fisheries and forestry employ more than 300,000 Australians, pump $63 billion to our economy and supply 93 per cent of our domestic food according to the NFF, so it's worth protecting.

This crucified bat has to be one of the creepiest items. Photo / Supplied

The government has increased biosecurity investments by over 29 per cent since 2013, providing $200 million in funding to strengthen Australia's biosecurity system on top of an additional $100 million to fight pests and weeds.

"We thank the women and men who work day and night to keep our country safe from threats to our farming, our food and our health," Mr Littleproud said.