Episode 13 – Alien (species) vs plants: beware of the invaders

Intro (00:00:10:02)

Science on the menu, a podcast by the European Food Safety Authority. 

James (00:00:19:20)

Hello and welcome to EFSA’s Podcast Science on the Menu. A very warm welcome to you. My name is James Ramsay, I’m the Head of Communications here at EFSA. And today we're going to be talking about plant health and specifically about invasive alien species. So, if you want to know a bit more about that, and I can tell you we're not talking about extra-terrestrials, then do stay tuned. 

We have a slightly special set-up for the podcast today. We're going to split it into two parts. We're going to start with a broad look at the invasive alien species, and then we're going to talk in the second half of the podcast about some of the communication efforts and awareness raising efforts we're doing.  

So, to begin with, we're joined by one of our plant health experts, Sara Tramontini. Sara, a very warm welcome to you. Thank you for being with us here today.  

Sara (00:01:05:25)

Thank you very much. James. 

James (00:01:07:15)

Let's start at the beginning, so to speak. So, what do we mean by plant health? And talk to us also about invasive alien species because this is what we want to really focus on today. And, if you're completely new to the subject, that might sound like something completely extra-terrestrial, but it's not, is it? We're talking about insects or pests that can travel around the world. 

Sara (00:01:33:20)

Indeed. So the definition of invasive alien species is very generic. It refers to the fact that there are some species of animals and plants that come from abroad and can have a strong impact on our ecosystems, on our agriculture, etc. And that goes beyond the specific EFSA remit. If you speak about what we do on invasive alien species here, what I do in pest risk assessment, it's about the evolution of risks that either insects, viruses, bacteria, or other pathogens, can bring to our plants in Europe. So, it’s a specific sub-category of invasive alien species. Still, among them there are species that are very known to most of the people for the type of damage and consequences that they have brought in recent years. 

James (00:02:22:16)

Can you give us an example? 

Sara (00:02:25:36)

Well, the most known one is for sure Xylella. But the most recent one that has probably appeared in many newspapers is that of the red fire ant, the Solenopsis invicta, which is indeed a non-native ant that was recently found in Sicily. Apart from making damage to agriculture, to crops, to plants. It's also very risky for human health.  

James (00:02:56:15)

They have a nasty bite.  

Sara (00:02:59:00)

Yes, that's right. What's really fascinating about the work that we do is really to put together some species that come from outside and try to figure out the numerous types of consequences that they could bring to a new place. A new place where maybe it doesn't have a natural enemy, maybe we don't have a human control option that works against it. Or maybe it finds a new host that was not a plant that it could find in its natural environment and is very suitable for it. So, these kinds of things are really challenging. 

James (00:03:36:16)  

I read about a research project in the UK over the weekend about the Chinese Mitten crab. 

Do you know about this one?  

Sara (00:03:48:03)

Yeah, absolutely.  

James (00:03:49:02)

So, this is widespread now across Europe, I think. And it's having a big impact on salmon farming and so on.  

Sara (00:03:55:17)

Right, right. Many of these species have this effect because there is no type of barrier to their spread, or even having an environment that is even more suitable for some reason, perhaps because there are more people moving, and moving them, or some climatic conditions are particularly good. They can start to increase their population in an unexpected manner. So, among the many drivers, there is not only the fact that there are no natural enemies, but the fact that we move a lot, we move a lot of goods, we travel a lot ourselves. There are other external effects that anyhow are related to our human activities. There is the climate warming, the global warming, that somehow creates new conditions in unexpected areas that could allow this pest to survive. 

James (00:04:42:09) 

Maybe just linking to the situation in Europe, what the EU does in the area of plant health. Why is it important, first of all, and what do we do in the EU to make sure that we’re protecting against these risks?  

Sara (00:04:57:17)

Well, in fact, our work of assessing risks, hopefully before they come, is a way to give the tools to decide about what to regulate and what not. 

So we have a very broad but also a very dynamic regulation in terms of plant health that is continuously updated with the list of new pests that should be regulated as quarantine pests or in an even more restrictive manner. There are a lot of categories of pests, meaning insects, viruses, bacteria, that are not allowed to enter Europe and if they are found in Europe, against which there are series of measures to adopt. 

James (00:05:34:15) 

So, at EFSA, we're providing advice about which kind of invasive alien species we need to look out for.  

Sara (00:05:04:40)

Definitely. We can get mandates on specific pests to work directly on them, or even more anticipatory activities, like it's the horizon scanning activity, through which we screen the news appearing in the media and try to identify signals from the web about any potential threat that could reach Europe. 

And therefore we inform the risk managers. And that way they can even anticipate potential risks.  

James (00:06:09:21)

Okay. Really interesting. And I guess we do this for various reasons, but not least because they can have a huge impact on the economy, on trade.  

Sara (00:06:20:21)

Yes, definitely. They have effects on our crops, but also on our natural environment. 

And the point of the biodiversity is one of the most relevant ones. It looks like the invasive alien species are one of the five main reasons of biodiversity loss in the world. But not only can they have effects on our health, like the example of Solenopsis invicta, on the animals, they can be vectors of diseases, apart from being also pests of plants. So there could be many aspects that interfere with our lives. They can have effects on our cultural values if they make disappear important species that are particularly relevant.  

James (00:07:04:16)

This was the case obviously with Xylella.  

Sara (00:07:06:15)

Exactly. Good point.  

James (00:07:08:20)

So, Sara, give us an example of one of these quarantine pests or these priority pests: the ones we don't want to come into the EU. 

Sara (00:07:15:21)

I think that a good example, considering that we are getting close to the end of the year festivities, could be the Siberian silk moth, scientifically known as Dendrolimus sibiricus, which is a moth coming from north-eastern Europe, that attacks many coniferous plants, including Christmas trees. So if by any chance you buy a Christmas tree that is not certified and therefore nobody has looked for the presence of this pest, you could bring into Europe a very dangerous and unwanted species. 

James (00:07:49:23)

So, that's something for us as consumers to think about.  

Sara (00:07:53:21)

Absolutely. We have individual responsibility for the movement of plant pests around the world. 

James (00:07:49:23)

Okay, well, that's great. You gave us a bridge there to speak with our next guest because we're going to focus a bit more on individual responsibility and the work, we're doing in Communications to try and raise awareness about some of these issues. 

So, thank you very much, Sara, for your time. And to our listeners, join us again after the break for the second half of the podcast.  

Part II 

James (00:08:31:01) 

Hello listeners, and welcome back to the second half of this podcast on Plant Health. So, we just heard from Sara about invasive alien species and individual responsibility as well when it comes to protecting plant health. And we're going to explore that topic a little bit more now and talk about our communication campaign on plant health.  

Awareness raising activities on this issue have been going on for a long time in Europe. A few years ago, was the first international year for Plant Health, and we followed that up here at EFSA with the Member States by launching a campaign of our own to raise awareness among the general public about plant health issues. 

And I'm joined today by two people who are very much involved in this campaign. The first is another one of our plant health experts, Agata Kaczmarek, and we also have a communications officer here from my team, Irene Zanetti. Hi, Agata.  

Agata (00:09:22:18)

Hello, James. 

James (00:09:25:09)

And hi, Irene. 

Irene (00:09:26:16)

Hi, James.  

James (00:09:27:20)

So, let's start with you, Agata. You've acted as a kind of consultant or scientific expert on this communications campaign that we're doing. 

Can you tell us what we're trying to achieve with the campaign? So why did we set it up? And what's the main message?  

Agata (00:09:43:38)

I think the main message is also for people like me. I'm a real plant enthusiast. If you look at my flat, it's full of philodendrons. So basically I keep bringing them in, I keep buying them and people like me are not very aware of what we should look at sometimes. 

So basically, the campaign is for different audiences that Irene will introduce. But the main message is: when you travel, don't bring plants with you! The campaign is about not bringing plants from outside the EU, but it's also within the EU. As countries have different environments, we have to be concerned about what we bring. So basically, when we spot for example a nice plant in the field on our holidays, let’s not bring it home because it looks nice on our balcony. 

Buy plants with certification, the EU has certification, third countries also have certification. So that's our second message. The third message is education. So basically, educate your kids. Nowadays we have really nice cartoons, also commercials. Even my nieces showed me one of the really interesting cartoons about the invasive species and how the kids by accident introduced a new plant to the Galapagos Islands. And I was really amazed because the message was targeted to kids of 9, 11 years, my niece's ten years. And she told me: “Do you know what invasive alien species are?” So that was really funny, but it also gives you hope for the new generation that something that we do matters.  

James (00:11:25:22)

Well, it’s also very nice to hear that your niece is a keen plant enthusiast as well. 

So maybe she follows in your footsteps. As a as a scientist.  

Agata (00:11:35:38)

I hope so. 

James (00:11:36:01)

Agata, thanks very much. We're going to bring in Irene now to talk a little bit about the mechanics of the campaign, because it's something we are doing with a large number of international partners and partners within the Member States.  

Irene, welcome to the hot seat, so to speak. Just talk to us a bit more about the rationale for the campaign. So why did we start this in the first place?  

Irene (00:11:58:12)

We have run social research at EFSA, which showed that European citizens have a very low awareness of the risks linked to plant health. Sara and Agata have explained to us the potential threats coming to our food security, food safety and biodiversity, and what we see is that Europeans don't know about them. 

So the risks that are linked to their behaviour are not due to their negligence, they are linked to their lack of awareness. And that's why we decided to develop a campaign targeting travellers, plant enthusiasts, parents and their children, so that we can increase awareness.  

James  (00:12:40:12)

And we focus on these specific target audiences because we know from our research that the messages we have to convey will be well received or will resonate most with them? 

Irene (00:12:49:21)

Yes, we do because their behaviour could lead to plant health threats, first of all. And because social research shows they are prone to take up the message and to further spread it as ambassadors or as influencers, we would say in the social media world, within their communities, within their families and their circle of friends. Travellers, for example, reached by our campaign will hopefully next year start to tell their friends and their traveling companions: “No, folks. That's a very nice plant, but we shouldn't take it all from our travel. Let's rather buy it from a retailer, a seller, when we're back home”.  

James (00:13:33:01)

Very good. Obviously, EFSA is a European Union agency and we're running a pan-European campaign. What's it like to roll out a campaign on that kind of scale?  

Irene (00:13:43:19)

It's extremely fun. It's also a challenge in the sense that we need to create a narrative and a set of creative materials that could speak to Europeans across the continent. We didn't use an existing bug. We developed an insect bug that could be perceived immediately by everyone as a threat to our environment and way of life.  

James (00:14:09:01)

And it's a multiyear campaign, right? We launched it this year, but there's plenty more coming soon.  

Irene (00:14:14:14)

Yes, it's a three-year campaign. This year we had 12 countries on board: ten from the EU, two candidate countries and even more next year. So, stay tuned for next year’s edition! 

James (00:14:25:03)

Brilliant. Before we close, remind us again Irene the name of the campaign and tell our listeners where they can find more information if they like it.  

Irene (00:14:33:24) 

Sure. It's called Plant Health 4 Life, to highlight the key link between the plant health and our everyday lives. Information can be found on our website, the campaign’s dedicated website, and on social media, and the hashtag Plant Health 4 Life. 

James (00:14:56:15)

That's great. I think we're going to leave it there. Thank you very much, Irene.  

Irene (00:15:01:12)

Thank you for having me.  

James (00:15:03:01)

And thank you, too, Agata.  

Agata (00:15:04:22)

Thank you very much, James.  

James (00:15:06:15)

Thank you, everyone. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of Science on the menu. Stay tuned for the next episode, which is coming soon. And we'll see you all next time. Thank you and goodbye.