The hidden cost of trade: Invasive species as a trade “externality”

by Faith Campbell

Importation of invasive species is an intrinsic risk of international trade. As trade volumes rise, so do introductions. Preventing introductions is widely recognised as preferable to responding after they occur. Prevention measures require exporters and importers, as well as national governments and trade-promoting and managing entities such as the World Trade Organization, to implement steps aimed at ensuring that the exchange of goods is not accompanied by the dispersal of damaging organisms. 

Read more: http://ictsd.org/i/news/bioresreview/117729/

Nursery Pr positives

The USDA APHIS P. ramorum Program 2011, 3rd Quarter Summary (posted at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/pram/downloads/updates/2011/3rdqtr-Sept2011.pdf) reported 25 nursery-related P. ramorum confirmations from January to September 30, 2011 in the following states:  CA(12), OR (6), WA (5); SC (1); and CT (1 residential).  Fourteen of the nurseries were interstate shippers and nine were retail.  Positive plant detections were from the following plant species:  Camellia (31%); Rhododendron (34%); Pieris (5%); Viburnum (5%); Magnolia (5%); Osmanthus (3%); Gaultheria (3%); Cinnamonum (3%); and 7 other species (11%).

From the COMTF October 2011 newsletter

Oak death creeps north

Despite a multimillion-dollar control program, sudden oak death has spread six miles north of its quarantine zone in Curry County -- closer to Coos County.

Read more: http://theworldlink.com/news/local/article_622bb42a-2323-576c-95f9-d5e4d073c24f.html#ixzz1bM1d0wPF

UK government launches tree biosecurity plan

The UK government has said that it will invest £7m to tackle tree diseases, amid fears that millions of trees could be lost unless urgent action is taken.

The Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity action plan was launched as scientists confirmed the arrival of a deadly disease in England among urban trees.

Phytophtora lateralis was recorded in Devon on a Lawson cypress, a popular species in parks and gardens.
Ministers hope the plan will tighten biosecurity measures and protect trees.

Read the entire article on BBC News.

Tree ailment could slam Oregon industries

Researchers guess sudden oak death has cost California landowners several million dollars. The cost to Oregon could be far greater.
While California's infestation is widespread, it mostly has hit semi-urban areas, where it has damaged property values. The disease is only beginning to reach Northern California's timber industry.

Read more: http://theworldlink.com/news/local/article_d95df55e-e0fc-11e0-8254-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1YQJR3fHl

This article by the same author has more background information and is worth reading:

Knock on wood
Thanks for sending this, Simon.

Investigating the Spread of Infectious Diseases With NSF, NIH, U.K. Funding

How diseases are transmitted among humans, other animals, the environment is focus.

New research aimed at controlling the transmission of diseases among humans, other animals and the environment is being made possible by grants from a collaboration among U.S. and U.K. funding agencies.

By improving our understanding of the factors affecting disease transmission, the projects will help produce models to predict and control outbreaks. Funding is from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease (EEID) Program. It is also being provided by the U.K. Ecology of Infectious Diseases Initiative of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and U.K. Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Among the systems being studied is SOD:

Title: Interacting disturbances: leaf to landscape dynamics of emerging disease, fire and drought in California coastal forests
PI: David Rizzo, University of California - Davis

Summary: This research aims to better understand how the interaction of multiple factors like wildfire, drought, biodiversity and nutrient cycles can interact to regulate disease dynamics. Using long-term studies of sudden oak death, estimated to have killed millions of trees in the western U.S., scientists hope to gain new insights about how the emergence, persistence and spread of a pathogen is controlled by environmental disturbance.

Job posting

This job is available to a qualified person with an interest in SOD:

A plant pathologist research position is available at NORS-DUC. Responsibilities include working collaboratively with NORS-DUC scientists, training undergraduates using NORS-DUC research as a teaching tool, developing and carrying out new projects based on NORS-DUC P. ramorum research priorities, and assisting with NORS-DUC-related grant writing.  Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position filled.  For more information, contact Sibdas Ghosh by email or at (415) 482-3583.