19th Meeting of the Joint EPPO/IOBC Panel on Biological Control Agents

Ljubljana, 2026-10-13/15

 

The 19th meeting of the Joint EPPO/IOBC Panel on Biological Control Agents took place in Ljubljana, from October 13th to 15th, 2026. The meeting was chaired by the EPPO Scientific Officer Mr Tanner and supported by the EPPO Managing Editor Ms McMullen, and 14 Panel members, one permanent observer, and five observers.

 

The main tasks of the Panel are to consider all aspects of the assessment and regulation of the import and release of biological control agents (BCAs) for use in plant protection, and provide guidance and information to EPPO member countries and the biological control industry. The list of members and the Terms of Reference of the Panel are available on the EPPO website.

 

 

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Development of new EPPO Standards

Substantial progress was made on two Standards currently under development:

  • Draft Standard on host specificity testing of non-indigenous BCAs. The Panel reviewed the draft Standard and made suggestions for improvement. These changes will be made and checked with the Panel with the objective to send it for country consultation early next year.
  • Draft Standard on assessing the establishment potential of nonindigenous augmentative invertebrate BCAs. The Panel reviewed the draft Standard and made some suggestions for restructuring and other improvements. These changes will be made and checked with the Panel with the objective to send it for country consultation early next year.

 

The Panel also reviewed a draft scope for a new Standard on Post-releasing monitoring of classical biological control agents. A subgroup was formed to work further on the specification in 2027.

 

Revision of existing EPPO Standards

  • EPPO Standard PM 6/3 Biological control agents safely used in the EPPO region

The Panel reviewed a list of BCAs (not currently included in the EPPO Standard) to identify priority BCAs on which a dossier could be prepared to evaluate their potential addition to the Standard.

 

For the BCAs already included in the Standard, the Panel discussed the categorization for establishment and efficacy. They considered updating the categorization either just for new entries or whether the whole list should be reviewed and updated. It was agreed that a proposal would be developed for the next Panel meeting.

 

  • EPPO Standard PM 6/4 Decision-support scheme for import and release of BCAs

The Panel split into 3 groups (on classical biological control, augmentative biological control and weed biological control), to carry out brainstorming on how to improve the usability of the Decision-support scheme. Each group presented their feedback to the whole Panel which will be used by the drafting team who will work on the revision.

 

As the revision is still ongoing a corrigendum was prepared and agreed upon by the Panel. This will correct and clarify certain points of the current version which is still in use. This will be published in the EPPO Bulletin.

 

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Information and awareness raising

  • National information

 

Mr Trdan, Mr Honey and Ms Gahramanova gave presentations on biological control in Slovenia, the United Kingdom and Azerbaijan respectively.

  • Nematode BCAs

 

Mr Laznik and Mr Trdan presented work on the use of entomopathogenic nematodes in Slovenia. Mr Ehlers gave a presentation on safety of entomopathogenic and malacopathogenic nematodes and their associated bacteria. The Panel discussed the way nematodes are currently assessed for inclusion in the ‘positive list’ and agreed that this is fit for purpose and that external expertise can be obtained if needed.

  • Pre-emptive biological control information

 

The Panel approved a short article for the EPPO Reporting Service on the pre-emptive biological control of the citrus blackfly Aleurocanthus woglumi using Encarsia perplexa and Amitus hesperidum.

  • Awareness Raising

 

The Panel was presented a paper, drafted by members of the Panel, which is close to finalisation entitled Increased utilisation of biological control technologies in the EPPO region can equate to cross-sectoral benefits.

 

Platform on information exchange for BCAs

The Panel was presented with an updated version of the Platform which has now been populated with some EPPO documents. Panel members will contribute further documents to this platform before it will be made available to the public. When published, the aim of the Platform will be to facilitate collaboration among EPPO member countries by sharing information on invertebrate BCAs assessed or used in the region.

 

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The Panel had a technical visit to the Plant Protection Department at the Institute of Agriculture and Forestry Nova Gorica. Special thanks are due to the team at the institute, and our local hosts Mr Vidrih and Mr Trdan for the excellent organisation of the meetings and the visits.

 

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The EPPO/IOBC Panel on Biological Control Agents will next meet on 2027-10-19/21 at the EPPO headquarters in Paris.