16th Meeting of the Expert Working Group on Resistance to Plant Protection Products
Teleconference, 2021-09-15/17
The Expert Working Group (EWG) on Resistance to Plant Protection Products met by teleconference, on 2021-09-15/17. The EWG continued discussing the EPPO Database on resistance cases. The aim of this database is to share information among the responsible authorities for registration of plant protection products across the EPPO region and between authorities and the agrochemical companies which apply for registration of their products. The prototype developed by the EPPO Secretariat is finalized and the EPPO Working Party on Plant Protection Products agreed that it is ready to be made open access for the public. The database was made publicly available just after the EWG meeting at: https://resistance.eppo.int/
All EPPO members countries are invited to appoint an official contact point and provide information about resistance cases in their respective countries to the EPPO Secretariat through this contact point (an official letter for the Heads of the National Plant Protection Organizations was sent on 2021-09-22).
At the meeting, the instructions on how authorities can fill in the database fields and the different database procedures have been finalized. A tutorial video for the database users was also considered and the EWG agreed to develop and make available different tutorial videos for the different kind of users.
In addition to the 400 cases validated in 2020, this year the EWG validated 77 further cases of resistance.
A regular topic on the agenda is the update from Panel members on current and new resistance cases and management strategies. Country presentations were made by Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Country presentations were followed by information from the Resistance Action Committees (RACs): Industry representatives informed the Panel about the new developments and recent activities of:
- the Fungicide RAC (FRAC)
- the Insecticide RAC (IRAC)
- the European and Global Herbicide RAC (EHRAC)
The EPPO Panel on Resistance will next meet on 2022-09-21/23.