Document sans nom

50th meeting of the Working Party on Phytosanitary Regulations

Helsinki, 2012-06-18/21

The 50th meeting of the Working Party on Phytosanitary Regulations took place in Helsinki, on 2012-06-18/21 at the kind invitation of the NPPO of Finland. This EPPO Working Party directs and supervises the technical work of many EPPO Panels related to plant health. The report of the meeting prepared for the EPPO Council and Executive Committee presents in greater detail the discussions, decisions and recommendations which were made by the Working Party; some of the major points are summarized here.

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EPPO Standards
The following EPPO Standards were considered ready to be submitted for approval by Executive Committee and Council in September 2012:

General Phytosanitary Measures (series PM1)
Revision of PM 1/2, by addition of the following pests to the List of pests recommended for regulation:
- Pests absent from the region (A1): ‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’ (Solanaceae haplotypes) and its vector Bactericera cockerelli, Keiferia lycopersicella, Leucinodes orbonalis
- Pests present in the region (A2): Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae, Pepino mosaic virus
- Transfer from the A1 to the A2 List: Maconellicoccus hirsutus, Trioza erytreae

Pest Risk Analysis (PM5)
Express PRA scheme for rapid decision making (new)
EPPO prioritization process for invasive alien plants

Diagnostics (series PM7)
Xanthomonas spp. (Xanthomonas euvesicatoria, Xanthomonas gardneri, Xanthomonas perforans, Xanthomonas vesicatoria) causing bacterial spot of tomato and sweet pepper
Erwinia amylovora
Clavibacter michiganensis subsp michiganensis
Fusarium foetens
Phytophthora kernoviae
Pepino mosaic virus
Bursaphelenchus xylophilus
Globodera rostochiensis and Globodera pallida
A fast track procedure was agreed for approval of future revisions of existing Diagnostic Protocols

Phytosanitary treatments (series PM10)
Hot water treatment of grapevine to control Flavescence dorée
Hot water treatment of strawberry plants to control Aphelenchoides besseyi and Aphelenchoides fragariae
Phosphine fumigation of grapevine to control Viteus vitifoliae
Phosphine fumigation of stored products to control stored product insects in general
Phosphine fumigation of stored products to control Trogoderma granarium
Phosphine fumigation of dried fruits and nuts to control various stored product insects
Phosphine fumigation of empty storage areas to control stored product insects in general

In addition the Working Party agreed with the withdrawal of the following EPPO Standards:

PM 3/39(1) Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis. Test methods for tomato seeds
PM 3/40(1) Erwinia amylovora. Sampling and test methods

These standards included mainly description of detection tests that are now part of the EPPO diagnostic protocols for the pests concerned (PM 7/42 and 7/20 respectively).

CPM issues
The Working Party was informed about subjects discussed by the Commission for Phytosanitary Measures, the Standards Committee, and the CPM Bureau. It discussed in particular the developments on electronic certification. The Working Party welcomed the organization of joint workshops with NEPPO (Near East Plant Protection Organization).

Risk associated with plants for planting
The first part of the EPPO Study on the risks of imports of plants for planting was finalized. The Working Party reviewed the draft EPPO Standard that includes a Decision-support scheme intended to be used by NPPOs to identify the need for a commodity PRA for imports of plants for planting from a given origin and considered that it should be sent for country consultation.

PRA
The Working Party reviewed the system established to perform PRAs in the EPPO region and made suggestions for improving the procedure. It discussed how to better involve members of the Panel on PRA Development in the review of EPPO PRAs.
The Working Party established a list of pests for which PRA should be performed or evaluated in 2012-2013. Expert Working Groups for PRA should be organized for Polygraphus proximus, Neoleucinodes elegantalis, Parthenium hysterophorus.
The Secretariat reported on the collaboration with EFSA.

Relationship between EPPO and other bodies
The Working Party discussed the collaboration between EPPO and CABI. At the request of the Dutch NPPO, the Working Party discussed the possible role of EPPO in ensuring the sustainability of the Q-bank database (this database initially funded by the Dutch government includes information useful for diagnostics in particular DNA sequences for regulated pests generated in the framework of the EU project QBOL). The Working Party recommended that this should be explored further.

The Working Party supported the proposal that the EPPO Secretariat should provide the structures for a long-term sustainable network for EUPHRESCO, a European Research Area Network (ERA-NET) project for research policy development and implementation in the field of statutory and emerging plant pests, diseases and invasive species. The Working Party took note that the financial implications will be discussed further at the EPPO Council in September 2012.

Other topics
The Working Party was presented a draft web interface allowing EPPO countries to make their pest reports to EPPO and possibly to other bodies such as the IPPC and the EU (if relevant). It recommended that the EPPO Secretariat should continue to develop this system to facilitate pest reporting by NPPOs.

The Working Party decided that the ad hoc Panel on Invasive Alien Species should become a permanent Panel and revised its Terms of reference and name to acknowledge its current focus on plants (Panel on Invasive Alien Plants).

The Working Party was informed of all standards being developed by the Organization. The Working Party decided that the work on phytosanitary treatments may only continue if member countries provide EPPO with appropriate draft standards. The Working Party also decided that NPPOs should be consulted to define priorities for the programme of the Panel on Phytosanitary Procedures as well as to define priorities in the revision of EPPO Standards in series PM 4 Production of Healthy Plants for Planting (this revision will focus on test methods).

The Working Party was presented with the work of the Secretariat on new tools of communication (Facebook, Twitter, Scoop.it).

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