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Aaron Isaí Plex Sulá, Plant Pathology Department, University of Florida, USA

Trade is a major driver for the expansion of economic capacity, but the global increase in trade has also often accelerated the geographic spread of emerging plant pathogens and pests. Safe trade thus urgently requires identifying which structures of trade networks at the global, national, and subnational scales are more likely to facilitate pathogen/pest spread and so these underlying structures are candidates to merit focal mitigation.

In this webinar, we will explicitly assess formal international trade networks of commodities associated with pathogen and pest movement and illustrate the potential role of countries via international trade for pathogen spread. Countries with high levels of commodity import (being trade destinations) and reexport (potentially acting as trade intermediaries) have the potential for high levels of invasion risk and merit particular phytosanitary attention. Trade connectivity of countries and trade pathogen/pest movement potential though depend on the focal pathogen status in the country, whether the country produce the focal crop host, whether the producing country has favorable climate for pathogen/pest establishment, and the current national phytosanitary efforts.

Multicriteria assessments of trade connectivity provide starting points for national plant protection organizations and crop industries to plan (pro)active phytosanitary strategies. Our network-based approach can identify candidate geographic priorities for surveillance and mitigation of the spread of pathogens and pests through trade networks, underscoring a need for a multi-purpose strategy to mitigate crop epidemics worldwide and nationally. We will discuss which key technical challenges, opportunities, strengths, and weaknesses we commonly face when conducting trade network analyses.