11^th Meeting of the Panel on General Standards 
on Efficacy Evaluation

Braunschweig, DE, 2011-03-03/04

The 11^th meeting of the Panel on General Standards took place at the Julius Kühn Institute in Braunschweig, Germany, on 2011-03-03/04. Special thanks are due to Dr Heimbach for all the arrangements made to ensure a successful meeting.

The first day of the meeting was dedicated to the preparation of the programme for the forthcoming EPPO Workshop on efficacy zonal assessments. 

The emphasis of the second day of the meeting was to finalize the draft standard on Comparative Assessment, which was previously sent for country consultation. The aim of this standard is to provide guidance for Comparative Assessment to determine whether the substitution of a plant protection product is appropriate in view of agronomic considerations. This standard does not address the technical details of comparative safety from the human and environmental perspective. It covers comparison with chemical and non-chemical pest control alternatives. The standard will be presented to the Working Party on Plant Protection Products for approval. 

Text proposals for revision of the following standards had been received and were reviewed by the Panel: PP1/239 Dose expression of plant protection products and PP1/226 Number of efficacy trials. They will be presented as relevant documents for the forthcoming Workshop.

A new draft on Principles of efficacy evaluation for microbial plant protection products was presented for information. It will be further considered by the Panel on Efficacy Evaluation of Fungicides and Insecticides. The Panel was also informed about progress in extrapolation work to accompany EPPO Standard PP 1/257 Efficacy and crop safety extrapolations for minor uses.  The Panel will next meet on 2012-03-08/09, a venue still to be confirmed.