49th Meeting of the Working Party on Plant Protection Products

Paris, 2019-05-27/29

 

The 49th Meeting of the Working Party on Plant Protection Products took place in Paris, at the EPPO Headquarters, on 2019-05-27/29. A technical visit was also organized to the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA) in Versailles (FR), which covered pheromone research and the use of pheromones in biocontrol. Many thanks are due to Mr Malet (FR) for organizing this very interesting and informative technical visit linked to the Working Party meeting.

 

The meeting of the Working Party was attended by 18 participants including 12 representatives from EPPO countries as well as a member of ECPA and the coordinator of the European Union Minor Uses Coordination Facility who attended as observers. This EPPO Working Party directs and supervises the technical work of the EPPO Panels concerned with the efficacy evaluation and registration of plant protection products. The major points from the meeting are summarized below.

 

View pictures of the technical visit to INRA 

 

 

EPPO Standards for approval

The Working Party on Plant Protection Products approved five new Specific Standards in series PP1 Efficacy Evaluation of Plant Protection Products and one revised. The Working Party also approved two revised General Standards in the same series. These Standards will be submitted to the Council of EPPO in September 2019 for final approval and subsequent publication in the EPPO Bulletin:

New Specific Standards

  • Xanthomonas arboricola pv. pruni on stone fruit – NEW

  • Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae on stone fruit – NEW

  • Aculops lycopersici on tomato – NEW

  • Leaf and plant hoppers on grapevines – NEW

  • Evaluation of mating disruption techniques against Lepidoptera pests in grapevine, pome and stone fruits under field conditions – NEW

Revised Specific Standard

  • Revision of PP 1/74 Scales on citrus

Revised General Standards

  • Revision of PP 1/264 Principles of trials design and data generation for mating disruption pheromones
  • Revision of PP 1/271 Guidance on comparative assessment. This revision followed the ​EPPO Workshop on this topic held in Lisbon on 2018-10-24/25 

 

Minor uses

Mr Meeussen, coordinator of the European Union Minor Uses Coordination Facility (MUCF), updated participants on the recent activities of the Facility which is hosted by EPPO. More information on the MUCF can be found at www.minoruses.eu /media/uploaded_images/ASSETS/icons/link.png and in the presentation made by Mr Meeussen /media/uploaded_images/ASSETS/icons/pdf.png

 

 

EPPO Codes

The Working Party was informed that progress was made on the development of the harmonized classification to describe PPP uses and that non-taxonomic EPPO Codes are integrated in the EPPO Global Database using Codes beginning with 3. A new visualisation of these Codes is now available in EPPO Global Database . It was recalled that the EPPO classification for non-taxonomic Codes to describe PPP uses will be useful for the EU countries entering data in the Plant Protection Products Application Management System (PPPAMS) developed by the European Commission.

 

 

Resistance to PPP

The Working Party was informed that progress was made on the development of a prototype for an EPPO Database on Resistance Cases. The plan is to create a database, hosted by EPPO, to share information on PPP resistance cases including published and confirmed cases of resistance and reports of suspected cases of resistance (emerging cases). All information will be agreed by the EPPO Resistance Panel. The information needed for the database has now been clearly identified by the Panel. The prototype is, for the moment, a tool for the Panel on Resistance to report resistances cases in a more structured way and the system will evolve, in the future, into a platform to assist EPPO member countries and applicants involved in PPP authorizations.

 

 

Programme of activity

The Working Party also discussed future activities and priorities which will be submitted to the EPPO Council in September 2019 for approval. In addition to proposals for new Standards or revision of existing ones, future activities include new zonal examples and the finalization of the harmonized classification for EPPO Codes to describe uses of plant protection products. The Working Party also agreed on the continuation of the activities to establish an EPPO database on resistance cases. The need for a plan for the implementation of a database on extrapolation possibilities for minor uses was identified.

 

The next Working Party on Plant Protection Products is due to convene in Portugal on 2020-06-15/17.