@article{Pollard:256505,
      recid = {256505},
      author = {Pollard, Gene V. and Fields, Angela and Taylor, Bret},
      title = {GIANT AFRICAN SNAIL IN THE CARIBBEAN SUB-REGION},
      address = {2008-07-13},
      number = {1875-2017-389},
      pages = {10},
      year = {2008},
      abstract = {The giant African snail (GAS), Achatina fulica, is native  to East Africa, and is now very widely distributed and  established across the Indo-Pacific region. In 1984, this  pest was first reported in the Caribbean sub-region in  Guadeloupe and has spread since to several other countries.  The only other report for the wider Caribbean Basin is for  Florida, United States of America, where the pest was  introduced in the late-1960s. GAS has been described as the  most damaging land snail world-wide, reportedly attacking  over 500 plant species inclusive of tree crops,  ornamentals, vegetables and root crops; it has also been  reported to vector several plant pathogens. Achatina fulica  is therefore considered a major agricultural and  horticultural pest species. Additionally, GAS is of public  health concern being an intermediate host and vector of the  parasitic rat lungworm, Angiostrongylus cantonensis, the  agent of the human disease, eosinophilic meningitis (or  cerebral angiostrongyliasis). However, in most of the  affected countries in the Caribbean, the snail has not  proved to be a major pest, mainly affecting household  gardens and uncultivated or semi-wild areas; the few  reports of agricultural losses involve mainly vegetables.  Management of this pest in several of the affected  countries consists mainly of the use of chemical baits and  physical collection of snails combined with limited public  awareness programmes. While its spread to date has been  slow, the establishment of the giant African snail in the  Caribbean is a cause for concern for the agricultural  sector and, lesser so, as a potential public health  problem. However, it should be noted that the spread of GAS  has not been anywhere near the rapid spread of other  recently introduced invasive alien species in the Caribbean  sub-region, e.g. hibiscus mealybug or red palm mite and  neither has the impact been as devastating.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/256505},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.256505},
}