Invasive alien species and disease risk: An open challenge in public and animal health

Why we should care about invasive alien species from a health perspectiveThe anthropogenic movement of pathogens into new geographic locations or host species, socalled "pathogen pollution" [1], is one of the main threats to human and animal health in a globalized world.Since the majority of zoonotic emerging diseases originate from wildlife [2], as recent outbreaks like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), Nipah, or Chikungunya point out, particular attention should be paid to wild animals' translocations, which represent a potential driver of change in pathogen ecology and distribution [1].Invasive alien species (IAS) are species of animals, plants, fungi, or microorganisms translocated by humans into environments outside their natural range, in which they establish and spread, negatively affecting the dynamics of local ecosystems.They are characterized by rapid reproduction and growth, high dispersal ability, and high adaptability to new conditions, thus often outcompeting native organisms in their introduced range [3], and have been recognized as one of the main causes for biodiversity loss globally [4].Some well-known examples of IAS include the south-American coypu Myocastor coypus, invasive in North America, Europe, and Asia, where it causes both environmental and economic impacts consuming aquatic vegetation and undermining riverbanks [5], and the eastern-Asiatic brown marmorated stink bug Halyomorpha halys, a successful global invader causing severe economic damages to agricultural crops [6].Besides affecting biodiversity conservation and economy, IAS, as translocated species, may promote pathogen pollution in the invaded area leading to the emergence of diseases [1,[7][8][9].It would thus be fair to expect animal IAS to be the focus of intense study by epidemiologists with regard to their disease risk toward native animals (both wild and domestic) and humans, as most of them thrive in anthropogenic environments, potentially increasing the risk for zoonotic pathogen emergence [9].Within the field of invasion ecology, there has been a wide interest in exploring the relationships between invasions and infections during the last decades.Researchers focused in particular in understanding how parasites (or the lack of them) may facilitate or hamper the invasion process [10-13], how co-introduced parasites may themselves succeed in becoming invasive [13][14][15], and explored the effects that IAS may have on native parasites dynamics [13,14,[16][17][18].However, outside the invasion ecology field, IAS have yet to gain attention among people working in the fields of animal and public health, and the concepts explored in the ecological context cannot always find application in the development of health initiatives aimed at