Meeting of the Panel on Efficacy Evaluation of
Fungicides and Insecticides
York, GB, 2007-11-19/21
The Panel on Efficacy Evaluation of Fungicides and Insecticides met at the Pesticide Safety Directorate (PSD), in York (GB), on 2007-11-19/21, at the kind invitation of Ms Mattock and Mr Macdonald. The Panel was welcomed by Mr Davis who gave a brief overview of PSD and the relevance of the range of work carried out by EPPO.
This year Panel members of both Efficacy Evaluation Panels (Fungicides/Insecticides and Herbicides/Plant Growth Regulators) were designated a new task: to start the work on specific extrapolations in the form of tables, which should form accompanying supplements to the newly published EPPO Standard PP 1/257 Efficacy and crop safety extrapolations for minor uses. These will effectively form working documents and will enable specific extrapolations to be regularly and easily updated and maintained. The preliminary format of the tables and first examples for vegetable brassicas and stone and pome fruit were initiated by the Panel on General Standards on Efficacy Evaluation. The Panel scrutinized and amended these accordingly, in preparation for the country consultation phase.
In the meantime, tables with examples of efficacy and crop safety extrapolations, produced by the PSD-led project for the European Commission (EU DG SANCO) are available on the EPPO website. They present useful information for users that was available at the moment of their creation (2005). The EPPO tables under development will eventually supersede the PSD-EU DG SANCO tables.
The Panel also continued its main work on the preparation of standards for conducting field trials to evaluate the efficacy of fungicides and insecticides. A number of revised and new standards were completed and they will be sent to EPPO countries for comment: Phytophthora infestans in potato (revision PP 1/2); Alternaria solani & Alternaria alternata on potato and the outdoor production of tomato; Take-all (Gaeummannomyces graminis); Thrips in Allium crops; and Leptinotarsa decemlineata (revision PP1/12). The Standard on Disinfection in plant production needs some further editing prior to sending for country consultation.
The draft standard on Fungal diseases on Agaricus bisporus was difficult to amend due to the specificity of mushroom cultivation (and lack of expertise in this area), and it will be further improved for the next meeting. A new draft standard on evaluating substances which are used for the confusion method against Eupoecilia ambiguella and Lobesia botrana will be further improved and presented at the next meeting.
Standards on Mating disruption pheromones: Aphid vectors of non-persistent viruses on flower bulbs and flower tuber crops; and Aphid vectors of non-persistent viruses on seed potatoes have been finalized and they are now considered ready to be presented at the Working Party on Plant Protection Products for the approval in 2008.
The Panel will next meet on 17/19 November 2008 in the Czech Republic. The precise location is to be confirmed.