29th meeting of the Panel on Phytosanitary Measures for Potato

Wageningen (NL), 2025-02-11/13

 

 

The 29th meeting of the Panel on Phytosanitary Measures for Potato was held on 2025-02-11/13 in Wageningen (NL), at the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (Dutch NPPO, NVWA). The Panel discussed Standards under revision, priorities for the future work programme and new pest situations. A technical visit was organized at the NAK (Dutch General Inspection Service for Agricultural Seeds and Seed Potatoes), followed by a visit to a seed potato producer.

 

Technical visit at the NAK and to a seed potato producer. Credit: C. Picard (EPPO)

 

Standards under revision:

  • The Standard PM 3/70 Export certification and import compliance checking for potato tubers was revised in an Expert Working Group in 2024. The Panel reviewed the draft prepared, which will be sent for country consultation after the meeting.
     

The list of existing Standards relevant to the Panel was reviewed, considering the needs for revision of each individual Standard:

  • The Phytosanitary procedure PM 3/21(3) Post-entry quarantine for potato was considered as a priority 1 (high) for revision (minor changes), in particular to add more information on high throughput sequencing (HTS) and Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum.
  • The Commodity-speciļ¬c phytosanitary measures Standard PM 8/1 (2) Potato was considered as a priority 2 (medium) for revision (minor changes) to align it with recent additions to EPPO A1/A2 Lists e.g. Begomovirus solanumdelhiense (tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus, ToLCNDV), Meloidogyne luci and M. ethiopica.
  • The National Regulatory Control System for Pospiviroid fusituberis, PSTVd (PM 9/13 (1) Potato spindle tuber viroid on potato) was considered as a priority 3 (low) for revision, to update it with new data on efficacy of disinfectants (see DISVIR Euphresco Project) and develop an appendix for countries willing to regulate the pest as a regulated non-quarantine pest (RNQP).

 

Presentations on pathotype identification for Synchytrium endobioticum were provided by two experts, in particular on the recent knowledge on resistance-based differential sets for S. endobioticum pathotyping, the Panel suggested that revision of the Phytosanitary procedure PM 3/68(2) Testing of potato varieties to assess resistance to Synchytrium endobioticum should only start after that the diagnostic protocol on this pest (PM 7/28) is revised.

An update was provided by an expert about research on virulence of Northern European Globodera pallida populations.

 

Panel on Phytosanitary Measures for Potato at NVWA. Credit: C. Picard (EPPO)

 

The Panel was informed about new pest situations related to potato: For the EPPO region, presentations were provided about e.g. suspicion of Epitrix sp. in Italy, recent outbreaks of Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Colorado beetle, EPPO A2 List) in the United Kingdom, recent work on virulence of Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum (EPPO A2) and situation in surface water in the Netherlands, and 'Candidatus Arsenophonus phytopathogenicus' (‘syndrome des basses richesses’, formerly Alert List) in Germany. Information on pest situations outside the EPPO region were discussed e.g. Tobravirus capsici  (pepper ringspot virus, PepRSV) in South Africa.

 

A discussion was organized on the risk of newly introduced tuber crops in the EPPO region to potato, and activities for the UN International day of potato (30th of May, decided in 2023) were shared.

 

The meeting date for the next Panel (2026 or 2027) will be defined later in 2025.