54^th Meeting of the Panel on Phytosanitary Measures

Tel Aviv, IL, 2016-11-07/10

The 54th meeting of the Panel on Phytosanitary Measures took place in Tel Aviv (IL) at the kind invitation of the Nationa Plant Protection Service of Israel . The Panel had the opportunity to visit pest-free production sites under complete physical protection for the production of Capsicum in the Arava valley.

Participants - View more pictures >

Guidance on buffer zones

The Panel was presented a review of current techniques and models used to estimate pest dispersal. It discussed how to define the optimal size of a buffer zone for a Pest-free Area or for eradication. This will be discussed further at the next meeting.

Guidelines to establish pest lists in commodity PRAs

The Panel finalized the draft Standard to send it for country consultation.

Platform to exchange information on national PRAs

The Panel agreed a specification describing the features of a platform to share national PRAs. This will be further discussed by other relevant Panels and presented to the Working Party.

Review of PRAs to consider management options

The Panel considered several PRAs to agree on phytosanitary measures to be recommended for the pests concerned. It reviewed short PRAs on Tomato pests (Aleurotrachelus trachoides, Bactrocera latifrons, Prodiplosis longifila, Ceratothripoides brunneus and C. claratris) produced by an EPPO Expert Working Group, as well as several national PRAs:
- Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer (Euwallacea sp.) and Fusarium dieback (Fusarium euwallaceae)
- Platynota stultana
- Strauzia longipennis
- Thrips setosus
- Citrus bark cracking viroid

Update the Project on Regulated Non-Quarantine Pests (RNQPs)

The Panel was presented with the progress on the RNQP project. The methodology has been approved and a large number of answers to the questionnaire were received from EU member states. The second phase of the project has started and nominations were made for 6 sector EWGs (potato, forestry, fruit (including hops and vine), agricultural species, vegetable plants, and ornamentals).

The next Panel meeting will be in Paris on 2017-03-22/24, with a joint session with the EPPO Panel on Quarantine Pests for Forestry.