Conference “Preparing Europe for invasion by the beetles emerald ash borer and bronze birch borer”
The Conference Preparing Europe for invasion by the beetles emerald ash borer and bronze birch borer, two major tree-killing pests, held in Vienna, Austria, on 1-4 October 2018. The conference focus on the threats to European forests from two tree-killing pests, the emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis, a buprestid native to SE Asia and bronze birch borer (BBB), Agrilus anxius, which is native to North America. EAB has invaded North America and European Russia and is causing massive tree mortality.
The conference provided input to assessing the ‘state of the art’ in a specific European context building on the considerable research activities performed in North America and, particularly, contributed to increase awareness and heighten readiness for what now seems to be an inevitable westward progression of the EAB from its advancing front in Russia.
The conference brought together expertise from a wide range of countries, representing the native and invaded ranges of the two pests. A number of internationally acknowledged, invited speakers presented the state of knowledge on the two pest insects. Experience gained in both native and invaded locations provided focus on the inter-disciplinary nature of dealing with invading pests.
A total of 83 experts from 27 countries, such as the USA, Canada, Russia, and many EU member states, discussed various aspects concerning biology, pest status, control options, and socio-economic dimensions of EAB and BBB. The focused setting of the meeting allowed an intense exchange of ideas and experiences and provided excellent opportunities for making new or strengthening existing contacts.
Topics covered in the conference: • The threats: history and potential
• European initial perspectives
• Monitoring and detection
• Dispersal and range expansion
• Managing infestations of EAB and BBB
• Economic and social dimensions of managing pest invasions
• The bigger picture; taking stock of multiple factors and next steps
Hugh Evans, Mariella Marzano and Gernot Hoch
Organisers of the conference
Abstracts 
Presentations
- Gary P. Fitt: An Overview of the OECD Co-operative Research Program
- Hugh Evans (et al.): The European starting point (UK)
- Scott Pfister: Evolution of the Regulatory Response to Emerald Ash Borer Infestation (USA)
- Dan Herms: Interaction of Bronze Birch Borer and EAB with Novel and Coevolved Hosts (USA)
- Francoise Petter (et al.): EPPO-Perspective (France)
- Franz Essl (et al.): Invasive alien pests threaten the carbon stored in Europe’s forests (Austria)
- Joe Francese: Developing and Improving Detection Tools (pt. 1) (USA)
- Joe Francese: Developing and Improving Detection Tools (pt. 2) (USA)
- Krista Ryall (et al.): EAB Detection and Monitoring (Canada)
- Peter Silk: Host Volatiles Attractive to BBB (Canada)
- Claire E. Rutledge: Trapping Bronze Birch Borer (USA)
- Zoltán Imrei (et al.): A review of trapping European buprestids (Hungary)
- Alain Roques (et al.): Testing a compromise trapping design (France)
- Ute Hoyer-Tomiczek (et al.): Initial progress in use of detection dogs for EAB monitoring (Austria)
- Chris J K MacQuarrie: Emerald ash borer population dynamics and range expansion (Canada)
- Marina Orlova-Bienkowskaja: To EAB or not to EAB? (Russia)
- Bjørn Økland, Daniel Flø: Pathways for transfer of emerald ash borer and bronze birch borer to Europe (Norway)
- Deborah G. McCullough: Systemic Insecticides and EAB – Products, Costs and Benefits (USA)
- Deborah G. McCullough: Beyond Eradication – Managing EAB to Slow Ash Mortality (USA)
- Kathleen Alexander: Emerald Ash Borer in Boulder, CO (USA)
- Glyn Jones, Barbara Agstner: Getting plant health management wrong (UK)
- Arne Arnberger (et al.): Emerald ash borer impacts on visual preferences (…) in Minneapolis (Austria)
- Mariangela Ciampitti (et al.): Lessons learned from managing Anoplophora (Italy)
- Hans Peter Ravn (et al.): Ash Dieback and Emerald Ash Borer ranges overlap – despair or hope? (Denmark)
- Rimvys Vasaitis: Ash DieBack in Europe (Sweden)
- Andrew Liebhold (et al.): Dramatic impacts of Emerald Ash Borer Invasion on Ash Demographics (Czech / USA)
- Zsuzsanna Dancsházy (et al.): Preparing for the early detection of EAB (Hungary)
- Kenneth W. Dearborn (et al.): Emerald Ash Borer Development Rates and Modelling (Canada)
Partner of Prepsys
This conference is sponsored by the OECD Co-operative Research Programme: Biological Resource Management for Sustainable Agricultural Systems.
www.oecd.org/agriculture/crp
Co-funding is being provided by the UK government Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra)
It is an activity within the EUPHRESCO project “Risk-based strategies to prepare for and manage invasive tree borers – Pest risk evaluation and pest management systems” (PREPSYS) www.forestry.gov.uk/fr/prepsys .