A New Resource for Research and Risk Analysis: The Updated European Food Safety Authority Database of Xylella spp. Host Plant Species.

Following a series of requests for scientific advice from the European Commission starting in 2013, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) conducted a pest risk assessment and created a comprehensive Xylella fastidiosa host plant database. The last update of the database, published in September 2018, includes information on host plants of both X. fastidiosa and X. taiwanensis, together with details on botanical classification, infection conditions, geographic location, pathogen taxonomy including information on subspecies, strain and sequence type, detection techniques, and tolerant/resistant response of the plant. This updated database of host plants of Xylella spp. reported worldwide provides a key tool for risk management, risk assessment, and research on this generalist bacterial plant pathogen

Guidance on quantitative pest risk assessment

This Guidance describes a two-phase approach for a fit-for-purpose method for the assessment of plant pest risk in the territory of the EU. Phase one consists of pest categorisation to determine whether the pest has the characteristics of a quarantine pest or those of a regulated non-quarantine pest for the area of the EU. Phase two consists of pest risk assessment, which may be requested by the risk managers following the pest categorisation results. This Guidance provides a template for pest categorisation and describes in detail the use of modelling and expert knowledge elicitation to conduct a pest risk assessment. The Guidance provides support and a framework for assessors to provide quantitative estimates, together with associated uncertainties, regarding the entry, establishment, spread and impact of plant pests in the EU. The Guidance allows the effectiveness of risk reducing options (RROs) to be quantitatively assessed as an integral part of the assessment framework. A list of RROs is provided. A two-tiered approach is proposed for the use of expert knowledge elicitation and modelling. Depending on data and resources available and the needs of risk managers, pest entry, establishment, spread and impact steps may be assessed directly, using weight of evidence and quantitative expert judgement (first tier), or they may be elaborated in substeps using quantitative models (second tier). An example of an application of the first tier approach is provided. Guidance is provided on how to derive models of appropriate complexity to conduct a second tier assessment. Each assessment is operationalised using Monte Carlo simulations that can compare scenarios for relevant factors, e.g. with or without RROs. This document provides guidance on how to compare scenarios to draw conclusions on the magnitude of pest risks and the effectiveness of RROs and on how to communicate assessment results

Plant Diseases and Food Security in the 21st Century: Quantitative Assessment of Consequences of Quarantine Plant Pathogen Introductions: From Crop Losses to Environmental Impact

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Quantitative Assessment of Consequences of Quarantine Plant Pathogen Introductions: From Crop Losses to Environmental Impact

Pest risk assessments are required to take phytosanitary measures to protect plant health. In the European Union, the Scientific Panel on Plant Health (PLH) of the European Food Safety Authority was established in 2006 as the reference body for risk assessment in the plant health area. Risk assessments address four steps: introduction, establishment, spread and consequences. Until recently, the PLH Panel had made risk assessments requested by the European Commission using qualitative approaches which typically gave risk and associated uncertainty ratings based on ordinal scales. The PLH Panel has now developed guidance on a methodology for quantitative assessment of these four stages. In this chapter, we outline key features of this methodology when applied to assessment of consequences, including both crop and environmental impacts, of the introduction and spread of quarantine plant pathogens into new territories. The methodology is then applied to four case studies Diaporthe vaccinii, Cryphonectria parasitica, Ditylenchus destructor, and the Flavescence dorée phytoplasma – plant pathogens representing a range of taxa, host types and cropping systems

Update of the Xylella spp. host plant database

Following a request from the European Commission, EFSA periodically updates the database on the host plants of Xylella spp. While previous editions of the database (2015 and 2016) dealt with the species Xylella fastidiosa only, this database version addresses the whole genus Xylella, including therefore both species X.fastidiosa and Xylella taiwanensis. The database now includes information on host plants of Xylella spp. retrieved from scientific literature up to November 2017 and from EUROPHYT notifications up to May 2018. An extensive literature search was performed to screen the scientific and technical literature published between the previous database update conducted in December 2015 and December 2017. The literature screening was supported by the DistillerSR software platform. The applied protocol for the extensive literature review and extensive information search, together with examples of data extraction, are described in detail in this report. This report also includes published information on resistance or tolerance of plant varieties to Xylella spp. The current database includes 563 plant species reported to be infected by X.fastidiosa, of which for 312 plant species the infection has been determined with at least two different detection methods. These species cover hundreds of host plant genera in 82 botanical families (61 botanical families when considering only records with at least two different detection methods). The update of this database of host plants of Xylella spp. reported world-wide provides a key tool for risk management, risk assessment and research on this polyphagous bacterial plant pathogen