Managing Biosecurity Across Borders

Managing biosecurity is everybody’s business. The book’s multi-site, multi-sectoral research contributes to an holistic, evidence-based strategy for managing plant biosecurity in complex contexts. The intent is to provide a starting point for all stakeholders in the biosecurity endeavor – policy personnel at all levels of governance, planners and regional developers, non-government organizations, community groups and individuals – to plan localized strategies that ‘fit’ national needs and constraints and the way people live their lives. In putting forward a ‘strategy’, we draw on many disciplines and cultural perspectives on a problem that is fundamentally a multidisciplinary and global issue. At the same time, the contributing researchers remain aware that such a strategy is always subject to local contextual factors and influences, indigenous and local knowledge and culture, and is regarded as a tool for planning, always subject to change.

Managing biosecurity is everybody’s business. The book’s multi-site, multi-sectoral research contributes to an holistic, evidence-based strategy for managing plant biosecurity in complex contexts. The intent is to provide a starting point for all stakeholders in the biosecurity endeavor – policy personnel at all levels of governance, planners and regional developers, non-government organizations, community groups and individuals – to plan localized strategies that ‘fit’ national needs and constraints and the way people live their lives. In putting forward a ‘strategy’, we draw on many disciplines and cultural perspectives on a problem that is fundamentally a multidisciplinary and global issue. At the same time, the contributing researchers remain aware that such a strategy is always subject to local contextual factors and influences, indigenous and local knowledge and culture, and is regarded as a tool for planning, always subject to change.

Globalization of the food supply has created conditions favorable for the emergence, reemergence, and spread of food-borne pathogens-compounding the challenge of anticipating, detecting, and effectively responding to food-borne threats to health. In the United States, food-borne agents affect 1 out of 6 individuals and cause approximately 48 million illnesses, 128,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths each year. This figure likely represents just the tip of the iceberg, because it fails to account for the broad array of food-borne illnesses or for their wide-ranging repercussions for consumers, government, and the food industry-both domestically and internationally. A One Health approach to food safety may hold the promise of harnessing and integrating the expertise and resources from across the spectrum of multiple health domains including the human and veterinary medical and plant pathology communities with those of the wildlife and aquatic health and ecology communities. The IOM's Forum on Microbial Threats hosted a public workshop on December 13 and 14, 2011 that examined issues critical to the protection of the nation's food supply. The workshop explored existing knowledge and unanswered questions on the nature and extent of food-borne threats to health. Participants discussed the globalization of the U.S. food supply and the burden of illness associated with foodborne threats to health; considered the spectrum of food-borne threats as well as illustrative case studies; reviewed existing research, policies, and practices to prevent and mitigate foodborne threats; and, identified opportunities to reduce future threats to the nation's food supply through the use of a "One Health" approach to food safety. Improving Food Safety Through a One Health Approach: Workshop Summary covers the events of the workshop and explains the recommendations for future related workshops.

Biosecurity: A Systems Perspective provides an overview of biosecurity as a system of related components, actors, and risks. This book—directed to the biosecurity practitioner, generalist scientist, and student—introduces overall features of the biosecurity system while walking the reader through the most up-to-date research on each step of the continuum (i.e. pre-border, border, and post-border activities). This book, which explicitly incorporates economic and social dimensions as well as varied decision-making contexts, paves the way for a more systemic approach to biosecurity risk management. The work spans statistics, ecology, mathematics, economics, veterinary science, human medicine, and sociology, involving collaborators across government, academia, and the private sector. This book uses a broad definition of biosecurity, rather than solely focusing on plant health, animal health, security, or one step of the biosecurity system (e.g. surveillance). As such, this book is a one-stop shop for readers interested in all aspects of biosecurity. The content and language are accessible to a wide range of audiences, including generalist scientists, biosecurity practitioners, and graduate students. More complex content is introduced in standalone boxes or chapters. The book follows a clear, simple structure within and among chapters (i.e. following the structure of the biosecurity system), making it a preferred option for graduate students. This book introduces novel cross-cutting themes, such as the importance of economic efficiency and institutional and social factors, going beyond the traditional science-based approach to biosecurity. Written in partnership with government agency practitioners, this book uses on-the-ground case studies to demonstrate how biosecurity principles are applied in practice. The book addresses challenges common to regulators in general, namely efficient regulation in uncertain and rapidly changing environments with multiple stakeholders who have—at times—conflicting priorities. Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 and 14 are available to read Open Access via Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives (CC-BY-ND) 4.0, at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.1201/9781003253204/.

The Handbook identifies all aspects of Regulatory Plant Biosecurity and discusses them from the standpoint of preventing the international movement of plant pests, diseases and weeds that negatively impact production agriculture, natural plant-resources and agricultural commerce.

Biosecurity is the assessment and management of potentially dangerous infectious diseases, quarantined pests, invasive (alien) species, living modified organisms, and biological weapons. It is a holistic concept of direct relevance to the sustainability of agriculture, food safety, and the protection of human populations (including bio-terrorism), the environment, and biodiversity. Biosecurity is a relatively new concept that has become increasingly prevalent in academic, policy and media circles, and needs a more comprehensive and inter-disciplinary approach to take into account mobility, globalisation and climate change. In this introductory volume, biosecurity is presented as a governance approach to a set of concerns that span the protection of indigenous biological organisms, agricultural systems and human health, from invasive pests and diseases. It describes the ways in which biosecurity is understood and theorized in different subject disciplines, including anthropology, political theory, ecology, geography and environmental management. It examines the different scientific and knowledge practices connected to biosecurity governance, including legal regimes, ecology, risk management and alternative knowledges. The geopolitics of biosecurity is considered in terms of health, biopolitics and trade governance at the global scale. Finally, biosecurity as an approach to actively secure the future is assessed in the context of future risk and uncertainties, such as globalization and climate change.

This book reviews the latest risk-based techniques to protect national interests from invasive pests and pathogens before, at and within national borders.

Invasive species have a critical and growing effect upon natural areas. They can modify, degrade, or destroy wildland ecosystem structure and function, and reduce native biodiversity. Landscape-level solutions are needed to address these problems. Conservation biologists seek to limit such damage and restore ecosystems using a variety of approaches. One such approach is biological control: the deliberate importation and establishment of specialized natural enemies, which can address invasive species problems and which should be considered as a possible component of restoration. Biological control can be an effective tool against many invasive insects and plants but it has rarely been successfully employed against other groups. Safety is of paramount concern and requires that the natural enemies used be specialized and that targeted pests be drivers of ecological degradation. While modern approaches allow species to be selected with a high level of security, some risks do remain. However, as in all species introductions, these should be viewed in the context of the risk of failing to reduce the impact of the invasive species. This unique book identifies the balance among these factors to show how biological control can be integrated into ecosystem restoration as practiced by conservation biologists. Jointly developed by conservation biologists and biological control scientists, it contains chapters on matching tools to management goals; tools in action; measuring and evaluating ecological outcomes of biological control introductions; managing conflict over biological control; and includes case studies as well as an ethical framework for integrating biological control and conservation practice. Integrating Biological Control into Conservation Practice is suitable for graduate courses in invasive species management and biological control, as well as for research scientists in government and non-profit conservation organizations.

A safe and healthy working environment is a vital aspect of the food and beverage processing industry. Occupational Health and Safety in the Food and Beverage Industry provides key information on food and beverage manufacturing disease, injury management, and safer steps for employees to get back to work and discusses food security, safety, biosecurity, defense food safety, and quality including food adulteration. Features: Discusses fundamentals of occupational health and safety in the food and beverage industry Highlight standards and legislations as related to occupational health and safety for food and beverage processing sectors Covers hazards, elements, accident prevention, various hazards present in food and beverage sectors, and their disease and injury management Explores ethical issues in agri-food processing sectors and their effects on sustainability Introduces importance, organization, and management for food and beverage processing sectors to prevent losses The book is intended for professionals in the fields of occupational health and safety, food engineering, chemical engineering, and process engineering.