New quarantine station for woody plants in France
A new quarantine station for woody plants was inaugurated on 1998-11-20. This station is located near Clermont-Ferrand (Puy de Dôme, Auvergne region) and has been in operation since 1997. It functions under the French National Laboratory for Plant Protection but its technical operation is ensured by the Plant Protection Service. Its main activities relate to quarantine and the phytosanitary status of material imported into France. The station also take part in national monitoring for nursery pests, in the preparation of strategies and diagnostic protocols for quarantine pests (including the maintenance of a collection of quarantine pests), and in the progress of regulations.
It is composed of laboratories, glasshouses and nurseries. A pre-quarantine facility, testing facilities and a humid cold chamber to maintain dormant material coming from the Southern hemisphere prior to planting or grafting are also available.
The plant species concerned are mainly fruit trees, ornamental woody species, forest trees, small fruits, grapevine. In 1998, 253 samples of apple, apricot, cherry, conifers, peach, pear, plum and raspberry from various origins entered the station on derogation. 600 tests on the indicator GF305 were carried out in the glasshouse for various crops (apricot, cherry, plum, peach, almond) and more than 100 on 4 indicator plants in the nursery. Concerning testing, 351 molecular tests have been carried out on Malus, Pyrus and Prunus, respectively for apple proliferation, pear decline and apricot chlorotic leafroll phytoplasmas, 465 serological tests for CLSV, PNRV, PDV and ApMV, and 311 isolations of bacteria on fruit or ornamental species.
The address of the quarantine station is as follows:
Station de quarantaine des végétaux ligneux
Site de Marmilhat
B.P. 45
63370 LEMPDES
Tél: (33) 4 73 42 16 53
Fax: (33) 4 73 42 16 59
Sources
EPPO Secretariat, 1998-12.