Commerce and the Spread of Pests and Disease Vectors: Based on a Symposium Held at the XV Pacific Science Congress in Dunedin, New Zealand, Feb. 1-11, 1983

370 Pages·1984·15.517 MB·English

by  Laird, Marshall

COMMERCE
AND THE SPREADO F
PESTSA ND DISEASEV ECTORS
Hand-colored in the original, the George Cruikshank
frontispiece was first published in the same role in Francis
Moore's "The Age of Intellect: or Clerical Showfolk, and
Wonderful Layfolk" (London: William Hone, 1819). The
reader is referred to this amusing though tedious poem for
the clerical allusions; those concerning transportation are
mentioned in the Preface.
COMMERCE
AND THES PREADO F
PESTSA ND DISEASEV ECTORS
Edited by
Marshall Laird
PRAEGERS PECIALS TUDIES• PRAEGERS CIENTIFIC
New York• Philadelphia• Eastbourne. UK
Toronto• Hong Kong• Tokyo •·Sydney
Ubrary of Congress Cataloglng In Publlcatlon Data
Main entry under title:
Commerce and the spread of pests and diseasev ectors.
Based on a symposium held at the XV Pacific Science
Congress in Dunedin, New Zealand, Feb. 1-I I, 1983.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
I. Pest introduction-Congresses. 2. Aeronautics,
Commercial-Congresses. 3. Pest control-Congresses,
4. Vector control-Congresses. 5. Insects as carriers
of diseases-Congresses. 6. Insect control-Congresses.
I. Laird, Marshall. II. Pacific Science Congress ( 15th
1983 : Dunedin, N.Z.)
SB990.C65 363. 7'8 83-16627
ISBN 0-03-062137-2
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Published in 1984 by Praeger Publishers
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vi / COMMERCE/ SPREAD OF PESTS/DISEASE VECTORS
by the postwar flourishing of aviation, and was fundamental
to the development of today's aerosol industry. Among his
many honors and awards, one that came late in life and that
meant a great deal to him had rarely been granted to a
Westerner. This was his (1977) doctorate from the Tokyo
University of Agriculture.
This book is dedicated to Bill for his vision, qualities of
friendship, and unflagging eagerness to cooperate with
others in working towards a happier and healthier world,
A
1' ,,
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ff" .. ""')
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Dedication
l°'-i 11
Bill Sullivan (1908-1979) at Simpson's Gap
Northern Territory, Australia
17 August 1972
Photo Credit:
' Lynnaire Clark Hawker
A modest and kindly gentleman with an endearing sense of
humor, the late Dr. William Nicholas Sullivan, Jr., served
his country and humanity well. He was a distinguished
researcher whose innovative investigations took him around
the world and to out-of-the-way assignments and places,
including radiological monitoring in the nuclear clouds
during the July 1946 atomic bomb tests held at Bikini Atoll,
and a visit to Australia's Red Center on his way to partici
pate in the 14th International Congress of Entomology
(Canberra, August 1972). His coinvention (with Dr. Lyle
D. Goodhue) of the aerosol 11bomb 11 (World War Il's "bug
bomb 11) materially reduced allied mosquito-vectored disease
casualties in the Pacific theater and elsewhere, opened the
way to practical aircraft disinsection on the scale demanded
V
Acknowledgments
It was a pleasure collaborating with Dr. J. S. ("Mani")
Pillai of the Department of Microbiology, University of
Otago, in his capacity as Convener of Section J, Ento
mology, 15th Pacific Science Congress. His speedy hand
ling of preliminary correspondence and communications
generally allowed us to keep in close contact despite the
distance separating our institutions. In fact, all partici
pants in Symposium 7-the presentations from which form the
basis of this book-are to be complimented for providing
their contributions rapidly enough to allow of publication
towards the end of the same year in which our session took
place (February 9 and 10, 1983) in Dunedin, New Zealand.
A special word of thanks is due to the Coorganizer of
Symposium 7, Dr. Pat S. Dale (Ministry of Agriculture and
Fisheries, Auckland) for his friendly assistance in chairing
the meeting. Appreciation is expressed to the authorities
of the Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) for
supporting the editorial burden in various ways. Finally,
thanks are due to Mr. Roy Ficken (photographer, Biology
Department, MUN) for processing a number of illustrations,
and especially to Ms. Ruby Strang for invaluable secretarial
assistance.
vii
Preface
This book had its genesis at the joint slide presentation on
11A ircraft Disinsection-its history, status, and future"
presented by the editor and the late Dr. W. N. Sullivan,
Jr., during the 14th International Congress of Entomology
(Canberra, Australia, August 22-30, 1972). The 11th
Session of WHO' s Expert Committee on Insecticides, 11A ir
craft Disinsection, 11 in Geneva (September, 19-24, 1960) had
envisaged an early transition from hand-held single-use
aerosol insecticide dispensers to built-in semiautomatic
spraying systems for in-flight treatment of all enclosed
spaces of aircraft with suitable vapor pressure pesticides.
Having chaired that Session and soon afterwards joined the
WHO Secretariat for a 6-year term, I enjoyed associations
with Dr. Sullivan while he was undertaking a task on WHO's
behalf, that was intended to be the final research and
development phase preceding the general adoption of such
built-in systems. Unhappily, this task was set aside in the
early 1970s because it was demonstrated that some harm to
certain materials of aircraft construction might result from
the routine use of vapor pressure insecticides in aircraft.
By this time I had returned to academic life; I shared with
Dr. Sullivan growing misgivings that failure to achieve a
standard semiautomatic solution to aircraft disinsection was
now associated with a combination of rapid increase in
global aviation (inevitably favoring insect dispersal hazards)
and steady decrease in the conscientiousness with which
airport insect control and disinsection were being regarded
by many countries.
Appreciating that the public relations aspects of dis
insection were involved too, at a time when the DDT con
troversy and speculation about possible adverse effects of
aerosols on the ozone layer were occasioning widespread
concern, we decided to write a joint book objectively pre
senting all the facts of the case. Dr. Sullivan's death came
at a time when we were well advanced in assembling the
relevant background ~nformation, Moreover, during the
1970s there were worrying new developments involving
additional establishments of medically and economically
important insects, through transportation, particularly in
viii
Preface / ix
the Pacific. The transportation in question included not
only larger and faster aircraft but also shipping containers,
which were now beginning to dominate the carriage of cargo
by sea-and to a growing extent by jumbo jets, too.
On being invited to organize one of the symposia in
Section J (Entomology) of the XV Pacific Science Congress
(Dunedin, New Zealand, February 1-10, 1983), I thus felt
it appropriate to suggest Accidental Introductions of Insects
Through Human Agency as the topic. So titled, Symposium
7 of the Congress brought together a number of scientists
to consider all aspects of this subject on February 9 and
10, 1983. This book's chapters were expanded from papers
then presented (these were duly abstracted in Programme
Volumes 1 and 2, distributed to participants). While the
titles of Symposium 7 and the present work were deliberate
ly made comprehensive in recognition of the essentially
global nature of the problem discussed, the Pacific is
always at the center of the. stage. This both reflects our
topic's relevance to the Congress theme of Conservation,
Development and Utilization of the Resources of the Pacific
(all of which goals necessarily suffer when new insect pests
and disease vectors arrive), and the fact that so many
Pacific lands (particularly isolated islands) have proved
especially vulnerable to imported fauna able to thrive in
previously underutilized ecological niches-often in the
absence or near-absence of natural predators, parasites,
and pathogens.
Our frontispiece was originally published in 1819. Its
artist, George Cruikshank, was clearly comfortable abreast
of profound contemporary changes that must have made his
era as intellectually stimulating as ours. Thus, in the
aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, sea transportation was
about to be revolutionized by the steam engine. With two
more years remaining before little ships of the type he
sketched first came into service on the Dover-Calais channel
crossing, Cruikshank nicely captured the birth of a new
means of locomotion that was destined to accelerate the
long-distance spread of insect stowaways and eventually to
augment beyond all imagining the volume of cargo carried
aboard individual vessels.
Balloons were much in the news at the time. Already
there had been notable balloon voyages and even pertinent
high-altitude experimentation with insects (see Chapter 15)
foreshadowing the Apollo IV research mentioned in Chapter
2. Cruikshank's balloon-whale whimsy (a Mr. Egg having
made a rival case for steam-propelled balloon-packets be
tween London and Paris) anticipated the commercial resump
tion of animal transport-intentional and unintentional-by