Species Risk Assessment of Microscopic Exotic Organisms Associated with Forest-Related Commodities and Goods

Recent increases in international trade have increased the cost to control and eradicate exotic species. Although many species are under quarantine control for agriculture, forestry, and public health, most species invisible to the naked eye are ignored because of the lack of both specialized assessors and risk assessments. We developed a species risk assessment particularly adapted to fungi, nematodes, and mites, that might be unintentionally introduced with exotic forest products and become threats to terrestrial ecosystems. We developed our assessment with reference to existing risk assessments for exotic organisms, including their ecological features such as phoresy and parasitism. We then tested our assessment with well-known organisms and assessed the risks of organisms unintentionally introduced into Japan. The assessment demonstrated scientifically acceptable scores for each organism. We suggest quarantine control of risk pathways as a practical approach for controlling unintentionally introduced organisms that are invisible to the naked eye.