Media monitoring to identify emerging plant health risks:

the case of the Fall Armyworm invasion in Africa

Giuseppe Stancanelli1, Franco Ferilli1, Ciro Gardi1, Jens Linge2 and Maria Rosaria Mannino1 1Animal and Plant Health Unit, European Food Safety Authority, Parma, Italy 2 Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Ispra, Italy giuseppe.stancanelli@efsa.europa.eu

Horizon Scanning Project • Collaboration with the European Commission

Directorate General Joint Research Centre (JRC) • European Commission Directorate General Health and Food

Safety (SANTE) Mandate to EFSA (December 2016)

Improve EU preparedness in addressing Plant Health

threats

Screening of media and scientific literature

Ranking of pests identified as new

threats for EU

Identify relevant

information on pests of

concern to EU

Tools and outputs

MediSys IT platform for media and literature monitoring on 351 pests

Monthly newsletter to the attention of EC and EU NPPO

EFSA Plant Health section in MediSys

Subscribe to E-mail alert

+ Emerging ones

The MediSys IT Platform: category edition Around 350 categories (or pests) with Keywords for automated articles selection

• Scientific names • Common names in

different languages

Addition of exclusion keywords

The Medisys IT Platform: workspace Allows to filter and select relevant articles from background noise

Human screening of selected articles

E.g. for Xylella fastidiosa 175 articles selected from a pool of more than 3000 (March-October 2017)

New findings, new hosts For pests of high EU interest New control strategies

For pests under mandatory EU measures Pest and control measures’ impacts

The Monthly Newsletter

• Presented and discussed at the PAFF meeting for decision on possible actions

• Table of content with cross-references

• Main issues • Links to articles, with translations • Source and date of publication

*(source: EU SCIENCE HUB)

“Media monitoring system providing event-based surveillance to rapidly identify potential public health threats using information from media reports.*”

• Public access to the webpage • Restricted use of the IT platform

The Fall Armyworm (FAW)

• Spodoptera frugiperda – Lepidoptera, Noctuidae • Spreading in Africa after its first occurrences

reported in 2016 in Nigeria, Benin, São Tomé et Príncipe, and Togo

• Favoured hosts include maize, rice, sorghum and sugar cane among crops and wild grasses among natural vegetation

• Monitoring on news about FAW carried out over one year (April 2017- April 2018)

• Source from 85 countries reported information on various topics in different languages

• A total of 2726 articles were collected by MediSys algorithm

Media monitoring: data

Histogram showing the cumulative number of articles/country/month on FAW over the period from April 2017 to March 2018. The number of articles is indicated on the y-axis; months are on the x-axis; countries are labelled in the key at the bottom.

Results of media monitoring in African countries with more than 20 articles issued on FAW in the period between April 2017 and March 2018.

In Malawi, renovated interest after declaration of State Disaster from Dec ‘17

New declared outbreaks in Zambia (e.g. Solwezi) in Dec ‘17

In Kenya, the Ministry of Agriculture officially confirms the presence of FAW and recognises it as a national issue for food security in April ‘17

In Uganda authorities officially confirm the presence of FAW in the country in April ‘17

Major points highlighted by media

• First detected in 2016 • Rapid FAW spread in African countries • Management measures adopted and perspectives of control:

• Insecticide treatments • Use of home-made mixtures • Perspectives on the use of

bio-insecticides or genetically modified maize varieties • Need for:

• Assistance to farmers in pest monitoring and control • Improved knowledge and research activities

FAW Portal

Outcome of monitoring activity on FAW invasion • EFSA FAW pest categorization

originally due by end of 2020 • Media reports on the fall army

worm invasion in Africa discussed at the May 2017 PAFF meeting

• Decision : prioritization of EFSA pest categorization (step 1 of the risk assessment), delivered in June 2017

Spodoptera frugiperda pest categorization conclusions

• Major threat to food security and trade • Maize is the main host plant • Many pathways for entry into the EU • S. frugiperda does satisfy the criteria to be

regarded as a Union quarantine pest • Focus future detailed assessment on:

• FAW adults entry in EU from Africa via migratory flights • factors affecting establishment to better identify any

endangered area within the EU

Outcome of the pest categorization • Strengthen measures to protect EU territory

• Listed in Annex IAI of the Council Directive 2000/29/EC, • Requirements in Annex IVAI for the introduction of plants of

Dedranthema, Dianthus and Pelargonium • Emergency measures adopted in March 2018

• New requirements at import and additional «specified plants» targeted by them (e.g. fruits of Capsicum and S. melongena, and plants of Z. mays)

• Request to EFSA to perform a pest risk assessment (step 2 of risk assessment) on this pest (DEADLINE JUNE 2018)

Results of media monitoring in EU countries with more than 20 articles issued on Xylella fastidiosa in the period between February 2017 and October 2017. The histogram shows the cumulative number of articles/country/month over the period. The number of articles is indicated on the y-axis; months are on the x-axis; EU countries are labelled in the key at the bottom.

New positive cases are found in the buffer zone of Apulia. New measures are under discussion at regional level to manage the pest.

Media report on the on-going discussion in Brussels about the revision of the EU emergency measures against Xylella fastidiosa

Media report the increasing number of infetced plants in the Balearic Islands

Media report the alarming detection of Xylella fastidiosa in Alicante

Another example from media monitoring: Xylella fastidiosa

Concluding remarks

• Media monitoring system provides event-based surveillance to rapidly identify potential plant health threats using information from media reports

• Automated monitoring /text mining → manned review → machine learning

• MEDISYS webpage is an open access resource with media monitoring results for more than 350 plant pests

NEXT STEPS • Automated literature monitoring • Ranking of identified pests • Increase cooperation

Acknowledgements • EC SANTE, PAFF COMMITTEE for discussion and feedback • EC JRC • EFSA Animal and Plant Health and Communication Units

and EFSA Working Group on Plant Health Horizon Scanning • ANSES for cooperation on risk ranking methodology and on

literature monitoring • EFSA Plant Health Scientific Network Member States and

EPPO for feedback • Many Member States organisations and academic

institutions for checking and translations of common pest names

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION