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Determinants of successful arthropod eradication programs

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Abstract

Despite substantial increases in public awareness and biosecurity systems, introductions of non-native arthropods remain an unwelcomed consequence of escalating rates of international trade and travel. Detection of an established but unwanted non-native organism can elicit a range of responses, including implementation of an eradication program. Previous studies have reviewed the concept of eradication, but these efforts were largely descriptive and focused on selected case studies. We developed a Global Eradication and Response DAtabase (“GERDA”) to facilitate an analysis of arthropod eradication programs and determine the factors that influence eradication success and failure. We compiled data from 672 arthropod eradication programs targeting 130 non-native arthropod species implemented in 91 countries between 1890 and 2010. Important components of successful eradication programs included the size of the infested area, relative detectability of the target species, method of detection, and the primary feeding guild of the target species. The outcome of eradication efforts was not determined by program costs, which were largely driven by the size of the infestation. The availability of taxon-specific control tools appeared to increase the probability of eradication success. We believe GERDA, as an online database, provides an objective repository of information that will play an invaluable role when future eradication efforts are considered.

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Acknowledgments

This work was conducted as part of a working group, “Applying population ecology to strategies for eradicating invasive forest insects,” supported by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/), a Center funded by NSF (Grant No. EF-0553768), the University of California, Santa Barbara, the State of California and the USDA Forest Service, Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center, Asheville, North Carolina. We are very grateful to the numerous colleagues and biosecurity practitioners who assisted in the compilation of data on their respective eradication programs. We thank Laura Blackburn (USDA Forest Service) for technical assistance. We also acknowledge support from New Zealand’s Better Border Biosecurity research program (b3nz.org) and an Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centre (www.pbcrc.com.au). We are grateful to three anonymous reviewers for constructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Northern Research Station, Morgantown, WV, 26505, USA

    Patrick C. Tobin

  2. AgResearch Limited, Ruakura Research Centre, East Street, Private Bag 3115, Hamilton, 3240, New Zealand

    John M. Kean

  3. The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited, Private Bag 4704, Christchurch, 8140, New Zealand

    David Maxwell Suckling & Lloyd D. Stringer

  4. Plant Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    David Maxwell Suckling & Lloyd D. Stringer

  5. Departments of Entomology and Forestry, Michigan State University, 243 Natural Science Building, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Deborah G. McCullough

  6. Department of Entomology, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, The Ohio State University, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster, OH, 44691, USA

    Daniel A. Herms

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  1. Patrick C. Tobin
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  2. John M. Kean
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Correspondence to Patrick C. Tobin.

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Tobin, P.C., Kean, J.M., Suckling, D.M. et al. Determinants of successful arthropod eradication programs. Biol Invasions 16, 401–414 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-013-0529-5

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