8th Meeting on EPPO Diagnostic Protocols for Regulated Pests (Fungi)
held jointly with the 12th Annual Meeting of European Mycological Network
Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 2008-04-23/25
EPPO participated in the 12th meeting of the European Mycological Network (EMN) which took place in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, on 23-25 April 2008. The meeting was hosted by the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency (SASA). There were 32 participants from 16 countries from 21 laboratories. So far, 17 EPPO Standards on diagnostic protocols for fungi and 3 general Standards have been published in series PM 7 (Diagnostic protocols). This year the revision of the protocols on Mycosphaerella dearnesii and M. pini and new protocols on Diaporthe vaccinii and Plasmopara halstedii are presented to the Working Party for approval. The following protocols were studied during the meeting.
Guignardia citricarpa
A revision of the protocol was prepared to add a real-time PCR test which is a quicker and more sensitive test for the identification of Guignardia citricarpa. The EMN concluded that the protocol should be sent for Country Consultation.
Gremmeniella abietina
The protocol was considered ready to be presented to the Working Party for approval at the 2007 meeting, but due to new information that the taxonomy of Gremmeniella will be undergoing major changes in the near future, resulting in raising varieties to species level, the EPPO Secretariat decided to postpone the approval. The EMN discussed this issue and concluded that the situation should be reviewed in 2009 but that if no progress was made on the revision of the taxonomy by next January, the current draft should be presented for final adoption with the inclusion of a sentence stating that taxonomy was under review.
Alternaria gaisen and A. mali
The EMN agreed that the draft needed further work and welcomed the suggestion presented to organize a ring test.
Gibberella circinata
A first draft of the protocol was presented to the EMN which concluded that it should be presented to the Panel on Diagnostics.
Anisogramma anomala, Melampsora medusae & Monilinia fructicola
First drafts protocols for Anisogramma anomala & Melampsora medusae were presented but the EMN had no time to review them in details (they were presented to the EPPO Panel on Diagnostics). The same occurred with the revision of PM 7/18 for Monilinia fructicola.
The meeting also took note of all the important topics discussed at the meetings of other related Panels and the Working Party on Phytosanitary Regulations and a presentation of the database on diagnostic expertise was made.
The next meeting will take place in Vienna on 2009-04-21/24.
