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Schaffner, U., Steinbach, S., Sun, Y., Skjøth, Carsten 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5992-9568, de Weger, L., Lommen, S., Augustinus, B., Bonini, M., Karrer, G, Sikoparija, B., Thibaudon, M. and Müller-Schärer, H.
(2020)
Biological weed control to relieve millions from ambrosia allergies in Europe.
Nature Communications, 11.
Article no. 1745.
ISSN 2041-1723
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Text (Version of Record (Article))
Skjøth-9268-VoR-Biological-Weed-Control-to-relieve-millions-from-Ambrosia-allergies-in-Europe.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
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 sustainable 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.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Additional Information: | The WRaP entry under 'Related URLs' is supporting data for the manuscript, found within a compressed zip-file which is encrypted with a password, as provided to reviewers. |
| Uncontrolled Discrete Keywords: | biological weed control, Ambrosia, allergies, Europe, invasive alien species, IAS, common ragweed |
| Subjects: | Q Science > Q Science (General) |
| Divisions: | College of Health, Life and Environmental Sciences > School of Science and the Environment |
| Related URLs: | |
| Copyright Info: | Open access article, This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. |
| Depositing User: | Carsten Skjoth |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Mar 2020 11:39 |
| Last Modified: | 08 Mar 2024 16:29 |
| URI: | https://eprints.worc.ac.uk/id/eprint/9268 |
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