Gaps in Border Controls Are Related to Quarantine Alien Insect Invasions in Europe

Abstract

Alien insects are increasingly being dispersed around the world through international trade, causing a multitude of negative environmental impacts and billions of dollars in economic losses annually. Border controls form the last line of defense against invasions, whereby inspectors aim to intercept and stop consignments that are contaminated with harmful alien insects. In Europe, member states depend on one another to prevent insect introductions by operating a first point of entry rule – controlling goods only when they initially enter the continent. However, ensuring consistency between border control points is difficult because there exists no optimal inspection strategy. For the first time, we developed a method to quantify the volume of agricultural trade that should be inspected for quarantine insects at border control points in Europe, based on global agricultural trade of over 100 million distinct origin-commodity-species-destination pathways. This metric was then used to evaluate the performance of existing border controls, as measured by border interception results in Europe between 2003 and 2007. Alarmingly, we found significant gaps between the trade pathways that should be inspected and actual number of interceptions. Moreover, many of the most likely introduction pathways yielded none or very few insect interceptions, because regular interceptions are only made on only a narrow range of pathways. European countries with gaps in border controls have been invaded by higher numbers of quarantine alien insect species, indicating the importance of proper inspections to prevent insect invasions. Equipped with an optimal inspection strategy based on the underlying risks of trade, authorities globally will be able to implement more effective and consistent border controls.

Biological control using invertebrates and microorganisms: plenty of new opportunities

“…Pests have been accidentally exported for many years, but at an ever increasing rate (Bacon et al 2012). Until recently, potential biological control agents could be collected in the country of origin of the pest, evaluated, mass produced and released when an effective agent was found.…”

Urban landscape evolution as a consequence of an invasive pest: The case of a small sicilian town

“…Alien insects are increasingly being dispersed around the world through international trade causing a multitude of negative impacts on ecosystems, agriculture, forestry, and landscapes, with consequences on human health in addition to annual economic losses of billions of dollars (Bacon et al 2012). …”

Border control for stowaway alien species should be prioritised based on variations in establishment debt

“…seasonally). These strategies need to be informed by detailed national or regional level studies that consider both the number of organisms likely to be introduced from the donor region (see Bacon et al, 2012;Work et al, 2005) and the climatic similarity of the donor and recipient regions. However, the results of such studies must be carefully interpreted.…”

“…Inspection services also often only target agricultural pests, neglecting organisms that will have environmental impacts . The development and implementation of prioritised inspection strategies could improve this situation and, if based on underlying risks or the potential costs of pest introduction, could result in more efficient and effective border control (Areal et al, 2008;Bacon et al, 2012;Surkov et al, 2008). Unfortunately evaluations tend to be at a global scale-there has been little effort to link evaluations of the underlying risks to prevention strategies at regional scales (but see Bacon et al, 2012;Keller et al, 2011;MacIsaac et al, 2002).…”

“…Bacon et al, 2012;Drake and Lodge, 2004;MacIsaac et al, 2002). As the number of organisms that are introduced is rarely known with accuracy, these endeavours use proxies (e.g.…”