Abstract
Risks from intentional releases of organisms to agriculture, the food chain or the environment must be assessed to ensure proportionate planning, just as accidental releases from trade or natural spread must be predicted so that management can be organised. Pest risk assessment methods are well established for trade related introductions and it is efficient to build on these and adapt available risk assessment components from agricultural and environmental assessment tools. Some additional risk considerations, particularly related to the motivation, capacity and intended impact of a perpetrator should be included, and some key elements of trade related assessments, such as the volume of trade, may be irrelevant for intentional targeted releases. Risk levels from the various causes and impacts should be comparable to allow authorities to direct responses appropriately. Preventative actions, for both intentional and unintentional introductions, are particularly important. For intentional release this puts emphasis on motivation, capacity and sources. A scenario based approach to assessing intentional release risks is taken to develop a pest risk assessment tool that can cover the range of levels of potential activity. A risk assessment framework is illustrated and a range of example scenarios is described.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
The term ‘agroterrorism’ is commonly used to refer to the ‘deliberate misuse of biological agents against agriculture by non-state actors’ (that is, a subset of ‘bioterrorism’). However, in this chapter, we also include ‘biocrime’ and ‘biowarfare’ under this general definition. Our rationale is that each of these ‘agro-risks’ represents a mode of ‘deliberate misuse’, distinct from traditional views of risk in agriculture, which focus on natural or unintentional outbreaks. Each of these risks possess some specific characteristics, so ‘bioterrorism’, ‘biocrime’, and ‘biowarfare’ are defined in legal terms (see Chap. 7) and we consider a range of deliberate misuse scenarios in our analysis.
- 2.
References
Ancona V, Appel D, Figueiredo P (2010) Xylella fastidiosa: a model for analyzing agricultural biosecurity. Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense strategy, practice, and science. Mary Ann Leibert, Inc. http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/bsp.2009.0021
Baker RHA, Anderson H, Bishop S, MacLeod A, Parkinson N, Tuffen MG (2014) The UK plant health risk register: a tool for prioritizing actions. EPPO Bulletin 44:187–194
Barbier M (2008) Expertise in the making about agroterrorism: issues and paradox of rationalizing hybrid threats. Presented at the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) & European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST), Rotterdam
Byrne R (2006) Horizon scanning rural crime – agroterrorism an emerging threat? Paper presented at the University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia, 30 November 2006
CBD (1992) Convention on biological diversity. United Nations Environment Program, New York, USA. 1760 UNTS 79; 31 ILM 818 (1992)
Chalk P (2001) Terrorism, infrastructure protection, and the U.S. Food and Agricultural Sector. RAND Testimony before the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, Restructuring and the District of Columbia, US Senate, Washington, DC, USA
Cupp OS, Walker DEII, Hillison J (2004) Agroterrorism in the U.S.: key security challenge for the 21st century. Biosecur Bioterror: Biodefense Strateg Pract Sci 2(2):97–105
Dahlstrom A, Hewitt CL, Campbell ML (2011) A review of international, regional and national biosecurity risk assessment frameworks. Mar Policy 35:208–217
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) (2015) UK plant health risk register. Defra, London, UK. https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/phiw/riskRegister/
Eggers S, Verrill L, Bryant CM, Thorne SL (2011) Developing consumer-focused risk communication strategies related to food terrorism. Int J Food Saf Nutr Public Health 4:45–62
European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation (EPPO) (2011) Decision-support scheme for quarantine pests. PM 5/3(5). EPPO, Paris, France. http://www.eppo.int/QUARANTINE/Pest_Risk_Analysis/PRA_intro.htm
European Commission (EC) (2007) Green paper on biopreparedness, 11 July 2007, Brussels. Report available at: http://ec.europa.eu/food/resources/gp_bio_preparedness_en.pdf
Fischhoff B (2011) Communicating about the risks of terrorism (or anything else). Am Psychol 66:520–531
Holt J, Leach AW, Knight JD, Griessinger D, MacLeod A, van der Gaag DJ, Schrader G, Mumford JD (2012) Tools for visualising and integrating pest risk assessment ratings and uncertainties. EPPO Bull 42:35–41
Holt J, Leach AW, Schrader G, Petter F, MacLeod A, van der Gaag DJ, Baker RHA, Mumford JD (2013) Eliciting and combining decision criteria using a limited palette of utility functions and uncertainty distributions: illustrated by application to Pest Risk Analysis. Risk Anal 34:4–16. doi:10.1111/risa.12089
International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) (2004) Pest risk analysis for quarantine pests, including analysis of environmental risks and living modified organisms. International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures no. 11. FAO, Rome, Italy (later updates can be checked at www.ippc.int)
International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) (2007) Framework for pest risk analysis. International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures no. 2. FAO, Rome, Italy (later updates can be checked at www.ippc.int)
Latxague E, Sache I, Pinon J, Andrivon D, Barbier M, Suffert F (2007) A methodology for assessing the risk posed by the deliberate and harmful use of plant pathogens in Europe. EPPO Bull 37:427–435
Mair M, Mair JS (2003) A complementary approach to bioterrorism prevention. Nonproliferation Rev Fall-Winter 2003:1–11
Moignot B, Reynaud P (2013) Developing a methodology for the prioritisation of pests in plant health. Euroreference 9:5–9
Mumford J, Baker R, Bremmer J (2011) Enhancement of pest risk analysis techniques: a manual and computerized consistent framework for assessing the vulnerability of receptor environments. PRATIQUE Deliverable number: 2.4. https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/pratique/publications.cfm#fldr_D2
National Research Council (NRC) (2008) Department of homeland security bioterrorism risk assessment: a call for change. National Academies Press, Washington, DC
Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) (1993) Technologies underlying weapons of mass destruction, OTA-BP-ISC-115. US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC
Radosavljevic V, Belojevic G (2009) A new model of bioterrorism risk assessment. Biosecur Bioterror: Biodefense Strateg Pract Sci 7(4):443–451
Slovic P (1987) Perception of risk. Science 236(4799):280–285
Suffert F, Latxague É, Sache I (2009) Plant pathogens as agroterrorist weapons: assessment of the threat for European agriculture and forestry. Food Secur 1:221–232
Turvey CG, Mafoua E, Schilling B, Onyango B (2003) Economics, hysteresis and agroterrorism. Principal paper presented at the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society 2003 Annual Meeting Montreal, Quebec, 27–30 July 2003
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mumford, J.D. et al. (2017). Integrating Crop Bioterrorism Hazards into Pest Risk Assessment Tools. In: Gullino, M., Stack, J., Fletcher, J., Mumford, J. (eds) Practical Tools for Plant and Food Biosecurity. Plant Pathology in the 21st Century, vol 8. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46897-6_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46897-6_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-46896-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-46897-6
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)