All official European Union website addresses are in the <b>europa.eu</b> domainEU Member States need to be prepared for the increasing threat that plant pests pose to food production and the environment. They regularly carry out surveys to check for harmful plant pests originating from outside the EU, known as quarantine pests According to Regulation (EU) 2016/2031, a pest is a ‘quarantine pest’, with respect to a defined territory, if it fulfils all of the following conditions:(a) its identity is established;(b) it is not present in the territory or, if present, is not widely distributed within that territory;(c) it is capable of entering into, becoming established in and spreading within the territory, or, if present in the territory, but not widely distributed, is capable of entering into, becoming established in and spreading within those parts of that territory where it is absent;(d) its entry, establishment and spread would have an unacceptable economic, environmental or social impact on that territory, or, if present but not widely distributed, for those parts of the territory where it is absent; and(e) feasible and effective measures are available to prevent the entry into, establishment in or spread of that pest within, that territory and to mitigate the risks and impact thereof.. The surveys track the emergence of quarantine pests, their possible spread, and changes in their numbers so the EU can better combat them.
To help EU Member States prepare and design their pest surveys, we have produced a toolkit that includes guidelines for best practice in carrying out these surveys, tools for statistical analysis and pest survey cards with specific information on each pest and how to survey them.
The toolkit also supports the harmonisation of surveillance methods across the EU.
We also organize training sessions and other events to assist Member States in using the toolkit for their surveillance activities.
Our pest survey cards provide key information on a pest including its taxonomy, distribution, biology, plant hosts, and potential establishment in the EU. The cards also include information on factors that can increase the risk of a pest’s introduction and spread, and methods for detection and identification.
The cards guide EU Member States in collecting relevant information for preparing surveys of quarantine pests in the EU in line with international standards and current EU legislation.
View our pest cards in our interactive gallery.
We developed a series of guidelines to support EU Member States in carrying out statistically sound and risk-based surveys. We produced general guidelines on the surveys and specific guidelines related to three pests as a pilot.
Our guidelines include instructions on how to conduct three different types of surveys - detection, delimitation and monitoring surveys - in line with international standards.
We also developed statistical tools for calculating the required sampling from the given survey parameters: host population Community of humans, animals or plants from the same species. size, method sensitivity, confidence level and design prevalence The proportion of a population found to have a condition..
Experts in pest risk assessment, plant pathology, epidemiology, and ecology.
