The role of surveillance methods and technologies in plant biosecurity

Abstract

Nations have designed biosecurity systems to protect their animal, plant, and environmental resources from invasion by pests. Surveillance serves as a key component of that regulatory continuum. This chapter discusses “surveillance” and touches on many topics associated with it: Sampling, detection thresholds, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and cyberinfrastructure. Surveillance is an official process which collects and records data on pests (presence or absence) by survey, monitoring or other procedures. Here we outline types of survey operations, survey planning, survey design, GIS, and information management. Surveillance programmes are used to promote early pest detection, support trade by demonstrating pest freedom, delimit pest incursions, and monitor eradication and management programmes. Special emphasis is provided for pest-free areas including scenario tree modelling, statistical power and system approaches. An overview of survey planning is provided for targeted surveillance including the use of habitat, climate and pathway models to identify locations and time periods when exotic pests are most likely to be detected. The survey design section describes the basic principles for developing a sampling plan for detection surveys (including confidence and detection thresholds) and surveys for information (including sampling units, sample size and implementation). GIS and cyberinfrastructure are tools for data integration, project management and for communication to stakeholders. The chapter concludes with a surveillance case study, the USDA Cooperative Agriculture Pest Survey (CAPS), a joint Federal and State pest detection programme for exotic plant pests in the USA. CAPS conducts targeted “high hazard” surveillance including pest and commodity surveys. CAPS committees select national and state survey targets from annually prioritized pest lists.