This database provides an inventory of the diagnostic expertise available in the EPPO region. Its aim is to cover the expertise on regulated pests (i.e. pests of EPPO A1 and A2 Lists, pests mentioned in EPPO Standards PM4: Production of Healthy Plants for Planting), pests possibly presenting a risk to EPPO member countries (EPPO Alert List) and plants of the EPPO List of invasive alien plants. This database does not include common pests which are widely distributed in the EPPO region. The EPPO Secretariat is maintaining the database but please note that all information included in the database is based on individual expert's own declarations of their expertise. This database had been established as a follow-up action of the EPPO Council Colloquium in Madeira in 2004-09 where the declaration "Plant Health Endangered - State of Emergency" was adopted.
How to search the database
Data can be searched by laboratory (Laboratory List), by expertise on specific pests (Expertise List) or by technical auditors or technical experts (Technical auditors/experts List).
Section 'Laboratory List'
All laboratories are included in a table sorted by country. Click on the country name to see the names of laboratories registered in each country. You can access both administrative and expertise details for each laboratory by clicking on its name. You can immediately visualize additional information concerning laboratories, such as whether it has a quality programme, whether it is accredited or offers training. You can refine your selection of laboratories by clicking, for example, on 'quality programme' or any other criteria appearing the right-hand columns of the table. You can also access detailed information on individual expertise by clicking on each line displayed in 'expertise'.
Section 'Expertise List'
All experts are included in a table sorted by the Latin names of organisms diagnosed. To search the 'Expertise List', you can use different criteria and combine them as you wish:
- names of organisms in alphabetical order (simply choose a letter);
- levels of expertise: select 'species' if you want to find the experts who can diagnose a given species, and similarly select genus to find experts who can diagnose most species within a genus, family (most species within a family) or order (most species within an order);
- types of methods used by the experts (morphological, serological, molecular, bioassay, fatty acids or classical microbiology).
Section 'Auditor List'
This section includes the list of experts recognized as technical auditors by their national body and the list of experts who perform technical audits for accreditation bodies.
Section 'validation data for diagnostic tests'
This section has been created at the request of laboratories which are engaging in an accreditation process. A laboratory preparing for accreditation should only use validated tests. When validation data is available the laboratory should only provide objective evidence that it can operate the test according to the established performance characteristics instead of having to perform the entire validation process. It was consequently considered that sharing validation data at EPPO level will save resources and promote collaboration.
It includes validation data for diagnostic tests for regulated pests. These data have been generated by various laboratories in EPPO member countries. The validation data are presented according to a common format developed by the EPPO Panel on Diagnostics and Quality Assurance. Validation data can be submitted by any laboratory registered in the EPPO database on diagnostic expertise. The data can be visualized and downloaded as a PDF file. In this file additional link(s) may be provided to a full validation report (often in the countries' language) or any other useful complementary information.
How to add new validation data for diagnostic tests in the database?
New validation data for diagnostic tests can be entered by any laboratories producing such data including companies producing kits and private laboratories.
To obtain a login and password:
- Check that your institute is not already registered in the database (if that is the case, the contact person of your institute will be able to provide you with the necessary passwords).
- If your laboratory is not yet registered in the database, please contact us
How to add your Laboratory and/or your Expertise to the database?
Data can only be entered by authorized persons (login and passwords are required).
To obtain a login and password:
1) Check that your institute is not already registered in the database (if that is the case, the contact person of your institute will be able to provide you with the necessary codes).
2) If your laboratory is not yet registered in the database, please contact us
