S14 - Session O5 - Keynote: An epidemiological approach for the early detection of plant pests and diseases

Authors: Stephen Parnell *

There has been a rapid increase in the number of new and emerging plant pests and diseases in recent times. A prominent example is Xylella fastidiosa which was discovered in Europe for the first time in 2013 on olive and has since led to several outbreaks across the EU on a wide range of different host species. As pests and diseases such as Xylella continue to spread into new areas, early detection is crucial to minimise subsequent costs of control or enable local eradication. Early detection also has an important role in the management of endemic pests early in the season to enable IPM approaches and more targeted applications of chemical control. The cryptic nature of plant pests and diseases and their spread through often vast and complex host landscapes makes early detection challenging and available resources for surveillance are usually highly limited. We show how epidemiological insights about the dynamics of pest and disease populations can improve targeting of when and where to sample and identify which detection technologies are most cost-effective for a given pest or disease. We also show how epidemiology can provide enhanced insights from promising new monitoring tools in plant health, such as remote sensing.