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Biological weed control to relieve millions from Ambrosia allergies in Europe.
Journal article

Biological weed control to relieve millions from Ambrosia allergies in Europe.

  • Schaffner U CABI, 2800, Delémont, Switzerland.
  • Steinbach S Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA.
  • Sun Y Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, 1700, Fribourg, Switzerland.
  • Skjøth CA School of Science and the Environment, University of Worcester, Worcester, WR2 6AJ, UK.
  • de Weger LA Department of Pulmonology, Leiden University Medical Center, 2300RC, Leiden, The Netherlands.
  • Lommen ST Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, 1700, Fribourg, Switzerland.
  • Augustinus BA CABI, 2800, Delémont, Switzerland.
  • Bonini M Agency for Health Protection of Metropolitan Area of Milan (ATS), 20122, Milano, Italy.
  • Karrer G Institute of Botany, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, 1180, Vienna, Austria.
  • Šikoparija B BioSense Institute - Research Institute for Information Technologies in Biosystems, University of Novi Sad, 21101, Novi Sad, Serbia.
  • Thibaudon M French Network of Aerobiological Monitoring RNSA, 69690, Brussieu, France.
  • Müller-Schärer H Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, 1700, Fribourg, Switzerland. u.schaffner@cabi.org.
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  • 2020-04-23
Published in:
  • Nature communications. - 2020
Ambrosia
Animals
Biological Control Agents
Coleoptera
Europe
Humans
Plant Weeds
Public Health
Rhinitis, Allergic, Seasonal
Weed Control
English Invasive alien species (IAS) can substantially affect ecosystem services and human well-being. However, quantitative assessments of their impact on human health are rare and the benefits of implementing IAS management likely to be underestimated. Here we report the effects of the allergenic plant Ambrosia artemisiifolia on public health in Europe and the potential impact of the accidentally introduced leaf beetle Ophraella communa on the number of patients and healthcare costs. We find that, prior to the establishment of O. communa, some 13.5 million persons suffered from Ambrosia-induced allergies in Europe, causing costs of Euro 7.4 billion annually. Our projections reveal that biological control of A. artemisiifolia will reduce the number of patients by approximately 2.3 million and the health costs by Euro 1.1 billion per year. Our conservative calculations indicate that the currently discussed economic costs of IAS underestimate the real costs and thus also the benefits from biological control.
Language
  • English
Open access status
gold
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/289006
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