12th Meeting of the ad hoc Panel on European Phytosanitary Measures for Potato

Verona (IT), 2005-02-08/09

 

The ad hoc Panel on European Phytosanitary Measures for Potato held its 12th meeting in Verona (Italy) on 2005-02-08/09 at the kind invitation of Mr A. Saccardi. Warm thanks are due to him and his colleagues for providing excellent working conditions. Mrs Battilani from the Instituto di Entomologia e Patologia Vegetale presented the Panel with interesting results on the setting up of a sampling protocol to detect latent infection in potato tubers. The Panel members had the opportunity to visit the old city, enjoyed the fine cuisine of Verona and were amazed at the many possibilities for cooking gnocchi (potato pasta).

 

 

 

 

The Panel finalized the following standards that will be presented to the Working Party on Phytosanitary Regulations:

  • Meloidogyne chitwoodi and M. fallax: sampling and identification
  • Export certification and import compliance checking for potato tubers
  • The standards PM 3/62 and 3/63 (Production of pathogen-free microplants of potato and of minitubers of potato, respectively) were also slightly revised.

 

It considered that the work on Globodera rostochiensis and G. pallida should be delayed until the new EU Council directive is approved. New drafts were submitted for the first time and will be further discussed next year: Phytosanitary procedure on general crop inspection procedure, Disinfection procedure for place of production and handling equipment. 
The Panel discussed the revision of PM 3/59 Synchytrium endobioticum: soil tests and descheduling of previously infested plots, to take account of new results on the detection of sporangia in soil and on the threshold sporangial population which present a danger. It appeared that no consensus could be reached on this point in the Panel. A Workshop on Synchytrium endobioticum will be organized to solve this issue.

 

As recommended last year, guidelines for Regulating Potato Micropropagation Material and Minitubers in Trade between EPPO and NAPPO countries were drafted. The participants considered that these needed further work. The Panel was informed that an ICPM Working group will meet in September 2005 to draft a global standard. The EPPO/NAPPO document would be a useful basis for this.

 

All pictures by Frédéric Suffert