Abstract
Detection methods are the first tools used by national plant protection organisations (NPPO) and inspection services in order to find incursions of quarantine plant pathogens or pests (Q-pests) across a border, a crucial step to implement Council Directive 2000/29/EC. This is often done visually in the first instance, with support from a laboratory for confirmatory testing and subsequent monitoring. Reliance on laboratory testing causes significant delays when action is only taken on the return of results from the laboratory to which the samples were sent. Thus, there is a real need for rapid, simple and robust detection methods that can be deployed by NPPOs in the field with inspection services to enable early detection of Q-pests. The multidisciplinary, international EU Q-DETECT consortium has a long-term goal to develop reliable detection methods for quarantine pests and pathogens (throughout the proposal referred to as q-pests) for use by national plant protection organizations (NPPO) and inspection services. The aim of the consortium is to develop advanced sampling and detection methods for early and reliable detection of quarantine pests of plants. The project will take a holistic approach and thus the methods developed will be suitable for use by National Plant Protection Organisations (NPPO’s) in official inspection and surveillance programmes. One of the main areas of work will be the optimisation of monitoring and sampling methods using interdisciplinary work on statistics and modelling. The methods will be primarily developed for use on-site and at the point of entry, though the methods will also be useful for ‘at-origin’ inspections. The project will concentrate on developing methods for economically and environmentally important quarantine pests where currently we lack adequate methods in the agricultural, horticultural and forestry areas. The target pests will continue to be reviewed and revised along with the EU where ever possible to ensure it is aligned with EU priorities. The methods will support NPPO’s in the implementation of Council Directive 2000/29/EC. The consortium has identified the major challenges in achieving these ambitious goals and has four principal project objectives: 1. Investigate and develop a range of detection technologies for important q-pests for use by NPPOs. 2. Validate the methods on real material both inside and outside the EU where the target organism is present. 3. By working with inspection services and NPPOs, model the complex role and relationships between plant health inspections, the use of different detection methods, monitoring and sampling techniques. 4. By working with NPPOs, European Plant Protection Organisation (EPPO) as well as third countries, disseminate the findings of the work widely within the community, both within and outside of Europe. The entire EU Q-detect consortium as a whole aims to develop detection methods based on biochemical (detecting volatile organic compounds [VOC] and nucleic acid), acoustic (including resonance), remote imaging (incorporating spectral and automated data analysis) and pest trapping (insect pests and pathogen vectors) techniques. Within this project Fera is involved in the development of three of these technologies: 1) Evaluating field detection platforms for the detection of pathogen DNA 2) Detecting volatile organic compounds (in collaboration with Radboud University) 3) Remote imaging (in collaboration with Rutherford Appleton Laboratory)
United Kingdom