EFSA Journal (Jun 2023)

Commodity risk assessment of Malus sylvestris plants from United Kingdom

  • EFSA Panel on Plant Health (PLH),
  • Claude Bragard,
  • Paula Baptista,
  • Elisavet Chatzivassiliou,
  • Paolo Gonthier,
  • Josep Anton Jaques Miret,
  • Annemarie Fejer Justesen,
  • Alan MacLeod,
  • Christer Sven Magnusson,
  • Panagiotis Milonas,
  • Juan A Navas‐Cortes,
  • Stephen Parnell,
  • Roel Potting,
  • Philippe Lucien Reignault,
  • Emilio Stefani,
  • Hans‐Hermann Thulke,
  • Wopke Van der Werf,
  • Antonio Vicent Civera,
  • Lucia Zappalà,
  • Andrea Lucchi,
  • Pedro Gómez,
  • Gregor Urek,
  • Umberto Bernardo,
  • Giovanni Bubici,
  • Anna Vittoria Carluccio,
  • Michela Chiumenti,
  • Francesco Di Serio,
  • Elena Fanelli,
  • Cristina Marzachì,
  • Agata Kaczmarek,
  • Olaf Mosbach‐Schulz,
  • Jonathan Yuen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2023.8076
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 21, no. 6
pp. n/a – n/a

Abstract

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Abstract The European Commission requested the EFSA Panel on Plant Health to prepare and deliver risk assessments for commodities listed in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2019 as ‘High risk plants, plant products and other objects’. This Scientific Opinion covers plant health risks posed by rooted plants and bundles of bare root plants or rooted cell grown young plants of Malus sylvestris imported from the UK, taking into account the available scientific information, including the technical information provided by the UK. All pests associated with the commodities were evaluated against specific criteria for their relevance for this opinion. Two quarantine pests (tobacco ringspot virus and tomato ringspot virus), one protected zone quarantine pest (Erwinia amylovora) and four non‐regulated pests (Colletotrichum aenigma, Meloidogyne mali, Eulecanium excrescens and Takahashia japonica) that fulfilled all relevant criteria were selected for further evaluation. For Erwinia amylovora, special requirements are specified in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2072. Based on the information provided in the dossier, these specific requirements for E. amylovora are met. For the remaining six pests, the risk mitigation measures proposed in the technical Dossier from the UK were evaluated, taking into account the possible limiting factors. For these pests, expert judgement is given on the likelihood of pest freedom, taking into consideration the risk mitigation measures acting on the pest, including uncertainties associated with the assessment. The degree of pest freedom varies among the pests evaluated, with scales (Eulecanium excrescens and Takahashia japonica) being the pests most frequently expected on the imported bundles of bare root plants or rooted cell grown young plants. The expert knowledge elicitation indicated with 95% certainty that between 9,976 and 10,000 bundles (one bundle consisting of 5–15 plants for bare root plants or 25–50 plants for cell grown young plants) per 10,000 would be free from the above‐mentioned scales.

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