Nematode interceptions in international trade of plants for planting

Trade of plants for planting and ornamentals in Europe has increased dramatically in the last few decades. For instance numbers of Ficus imported to the Netherlands has increased from 1.6 million in 2006 to 3.8 in 2010. Traded plants originate from different countries of which some play a major role at present (e.g. China). According to phytosanitary regulations (ISPM no 1 and the EU council directive 2000/29/EC) plants shall be free of harmful organisms or treated in such a way that no harmful organisms shall be present in order to prevent their introduction, spread and establishment. Absence of harmful organisms has to be checked by the importing country and when interceptions occur, appropriate measures should be taken. The latter is difficult to define. The findings should be officially notified by the European Union (EU) countries to the EU-commission via EUROPHYT. In this presentation we show what some countries (France, UK, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands and Ukraine) have intercepted during the last decade. We will show the diversity of the nematode pressure in the framework of global trade and that different approaches in the countries on how to deal with inspections and treatment might be reflected in the data. A Dutch survey on import of 21 different countries over 3 years showed that around 20% of the samples contained EU-quarantine nematodes. Other nematodes of phytosanitary significance (based on PRA quick scan) were found in 11% of the samples.
We will discuss what this data mean in terms of threats towards the importing countries.