Prevention is better than the cure for Sanitary/Phytosanitary (SPS) threats
The introduction of exotic pests and diseases is a serious risk for Dominican agricultural production and exports. International SPS standards recommend continuous vigilance to prevent negative impacts.
Pests and diseases hitchhike and move with people and goods. The Dominican Republic is particularly vulnerable because of its evolving role as a regional trade hub, the six million tourists it receives a year, and its large diaspora that travels frequently back and forth. Over the past six years the Dominican Republic experienced the repercussions of the introduction of an invasive pest (Mediterranean fruit fly) and a livestock disease (African swine fever) for which it was largely unprepared.
The presence of the Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata) in the Dominican Republic was officially reported in March 2015. There are different opinions as to where the fly came from but most certainly on an infested fruit brought by a traveler. Establishment of a trapping program across the country revealed that the pest had already spread to 2,053 km2 in the eastern part of the country, constituting a major outbreak. Trading partners imposed an immediate ban on the imports from the Dominican Republic of 18 different fruit and vegetables listed as hosts of the pest, resulting in a loss of over USD 40 million over the remaining nine months of 2015.
The outbreak was centered on Punta Cana, one of the busiest tourist destinations in the Caribbean. The agricultural production sites affected by the ban were more than 200 km away from the outbreak and never were affected by the fly. The lack of an operational national detection system caused uncertainty about the spread of the pest in the country.
The Dominican Government established the Moscamed Program through its Ministry of Agriculture as an emergency response. This program was financed by USD 12 million in funding from the Dominican government to carry out surveillance and control activities. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the United States Department of Agriculture-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) cooperated to assist the country in establishing a national monitoring network to determine the geographic extent of the outbreak and to initiate an eradication campaign with support from regional organizations such as the Organismo Internacional Regional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (OIRSA) and the Interamerican Institute for Cooperación on Agriculture (IICA).
The regional Guatemala-México-USA Moscamed Program played a major role in assisting through technology transfer, which included the application of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) and other integrated pest management components. Thousands of irradiated sterile male flies were imported from Guatemala and released. The last fly was detected in January 2017 and official eradication was announced in July 2017 after six fly generations had passed with no detections of the pest. The Dominican Republic is now on the list of 14 countries that have successfully eradicated the Mediterranean fruit fly.
Positive things came out of the Dominican response to the Mediterranean fruit fly. The Dominican Republic strengthened its quarantine procedures and developed the capacity for early detection and emergency response for invasive fruit fly pest incursions. It established a National Fruit Fly Program with an assigned annual budget to maintain the gained expertise, manage native Anastrepha fruit flies, and maintain the surveillance and response capacities for invasive fruit flies and other pests.
However, the DR is now responding to the introduction of African swine fever (ASF) in 2021. Again, because of a weak early specific detection and emergency response capacity, ASF became established all over the country and spread into Haiti before it was officially recognized. The DR was able to eradicate ASF in 4 years in 1978 but at a huge cost and the elimination of swine from the entire island. The DR is presently trying to control the movement of swine, increase the biosecurity of commercial swine operations, and identify and control outbreaks of the disease.
There are other SPS threats close by. There is the tomato leaf miner (Tuta absoluta) in Haiti. Cacao frosty pod disease (Monilia) is in Jamaica. Fusarium race 4 of bananas and platanos is in Colombia. The Dominican Republic needs to have early detection capability and an emergency response plan for each of these threats. It also needs to anticipate possible actions trading partners may take if these SPS threats materialize.
The expression "Prevention is Better Than The Cure" is relevant to SPS threats. The Dominican Republic has shown it can carry out the "Cure" part of the equation. However, the "Prevention" part of the equation requires increased effort and investment in risk-based strategies.