On Wednesday 27 March, the European Commission designated the first five European reference laboratories in the phytosanitary sector.
This decision brings the total number of EU reference laboratories providing technical and scientific support to national laboratories to more than fifty.
These new laboratories were set up under the 2018 Regulation on official controls.
Three of these reference laboratories will be run by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES): - the one dealing with insects and mites, which also includes the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES); - the one dealing with nematodes, in partnership with the Flanders Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO, Belgium); - and the one dealing with fungi and oomycetes.
The other two new laboratories will be run by the Netherlands Food Safety Authority (NVWA-NRC): - the first dealing with viruses, viroids and phytoplasmas in collaboration with the Research Centre for Plant Protection and Certification (CREA-DC, Italy) and the National Institute of Biology (NIB, Slovenia), and; - the second dealing with bacteria in partnership with ILVO from Belgium, NIB from Slovenia and CREA-DC from Italy. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)