Pests are a real threat.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – Many countries started to be affected by the invasive species nowadays. Despite many technological assets, we are still far from dealing with this problem.
Pests come in the form of insects, plants, animals and fish such as the Asian carp, long-horned beetles, kudzu vines and so on.
In addition to this, pests not only lead to environmental damage, but also to an economic decline. The United States spend around $40 billion every year to deal with insects and other pests that harm the forests and crops.
Plus, this situation is critical throughout the world meaning that governments must take active measures to tackle these invasive species that were estimated to spread even further.
Because every country accounts just the damage that these pests cause to their environment and economy, all of them have been oblivious to the fact that trades are the reason why these plants, insects, and other creatures reach every continent and many countries.
Fortunately, a team of scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia has begun a research, and they established that around 1,300 fungal pathogens and insect pests represent a threat to crop production from 124 countries.
Worse, around 30 percent of these countries are more likely to be invaded by these species, with major agricultural producers such as the United States and China as the biggest contributors to the spread of these invaders.
According to Dean Paini, lead author of the study and a senior research scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia, it is the first time when the whole picture is presented to all countries regarding the threat of invasive species.
Fortunately, scientists can come up with a better strategy now thanks to the fact that they understood the source of the problem so they can develop a more efficient approach to tackling the pest species. It is also worth mentioning that experts established that the numbers of invaders from any country depend on how often that state makes trades.
Based on this knowledge, scientists were able to calculate the risk of invasive species traveling from one country to another. Depending on the results, only ten countries are at a low risk of being invaded by pests, whereas important agricultural producers such as Brazil, India, China and the United States will be affected the most.
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