Two Infectious Diseases: "COVID-19" and "Pine Wilt Disease".

Two epidemics, a new coronavirus disease (hereafter COVID-19) and pine wilt disease (hereafter PWD) whose causal agent is the pine wood nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, are similar in terms of disease spread, particularly in an important role of the latent carrier in the spread of the disease. In Japan, damage caused by PWD has gradually decreased over the past 40 years, not because of successful control of PWD, but because pine forests susceptible to pine wilt have been drastically reduced by the disease. Meanwhile, COVID-19, which was first identified in China in 2019, became a pandemic in 2020 and caused long-term disruptions to people's lives worldwide. Even after the declaration of the end of the emergency by the WHO in May 2023, the coronavirus continues to produce new variants and maintains the potential for new waves of infection. In this paper, I would like to discuss the issues of control measures for the forest disease PWD, especially for the measures against asymptomatic carrier trees, with reference to the efforts implemented for COVID-19, which is more closely related to human society. This is because an asymptomatic carrier has been a blind spot in conventional PWD control measures, and I believe that a fundamental review of control measures considering this aspect is essential, and understanding the similarities between COVID-19 management and PWD control can provide guidance on how to effectively deal with both human and plant epidemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]