Biosecurity risks from stink bugs to New Zealand kiwifruit identified in Chinese language literature

Abstract

Brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), native to Asia including China, is a major invasive horticultural and crop pest in North America and Europe, and now threatens the southern hemisphere. BMSB has not established in New Zealand although it is regularly intercepted at its borders. Relatively little is known about the impact of BMSB on kiwifruit, an important horticultural crop in New Zealand; at least in English language literature. Searches were conducted in the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) platform using Chinese characters for BMSB (茶翅蝽) and kiwifruit (猕猴桃), and also in English, in international platforms. We identified 17 and eight publications, respectively, indicating that BMSB and yellow spotted stinkbug (YSSB) (麻皮蝽 and 黄斑蝽) are major pests of kiwifruit in China. Little information on BMSB or YSSB and their pest status in kiwifruit was found in English language searches in international platforms. Searching Chinese databases with Chinese characters in combination with searches in international databases is necessary to ensure comprehensive coverage for biosecurity risk assessment.

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“…YSSB could also become an ecological and economic danger to other parts of the world outside its’ area of origin if proper conditions and circumstances arise [ 45 ]. As far as New Zealand is concerned [ 13 , 46 ], and based on the mapping study with BMSB [ 47 ], there is no doubt that YSSB could establish in the country if it arrives and would potentially have significant economic impacts on a range of important horticultural crops, such as stone fruit, apples, and kiwifruit.…”

“…Besides BMSB, YSSB is another important stink bug pest on kiwifruit [8,9,13,15]. Both adults and nymphs of YSSB feed on leaves, flowers, buds, vines, and fruit [15], causing leaf yellowing, flower-, bud-, and fruit-drop or fruit deformation, respectively [8,22].…”

“…In November 2014, a single female YSSB was discovered and destroyed in Temuka, New Zealand [12]. Although no further interceptions have since been reported there, YSSB is still considered as an important biosecurity risk to New Zealand [13].…”

“…In order to carry out proper risk analysis and develop corresponding pre-border, at-border, and post-border biosecurity activities to prevent the potential invasion of YSSB, more in-depth understanding of the biology and ecology of YSSB in its native range would provide useful local knowledge for researchers, quarantine officers, and industry biosecurity specialists in concerned countries. However, little is known about the biology and ecology of YSSB outside of Asia, although there are quite a few Chinese studies on this pest [13]. To assemble this information, extensive literature searches on YSSB were conducted in three Chinese databases: the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, the Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform, and Weipu using Chinese characters.…”

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“…However, in the past many Chinese publications have not been easily accessible to international audiences because of the use of a non-Latin based language script and publication in local journals. Previous studies have demonstrated that Chinese databases containing Chinese language literature provided more quantitative (i.e., the number of publications on the subject in question) and qualitative (i.e., the quality of the information on that subject found therein) information than international English language databases for species in China which are of invasive concern to New Zealand [17,18]. A growing body of literature supports the need to access and interrogate non-English language data sources to obtain a more comprehensive collection of relevant publications and the information found within them at least in some disciplines [19][20][21][22].…”