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Publication

Belgian network and activities in the frame of the International Plant Sentinel Network (Euphresco-IPSN2): BePSN.

Book - Report

Subtitle:Interim scientific report RI 16/I-224 Be-PSN
During the first year of the project, the communication on activities, processes and deadlines was regularly carried out by phone, by mail and at meetings with the partners and participating BG&A. Moreover, a survey by phone was done to all participating gardens in January 2018, in order to question their experiences and realizations with making records and entering data. Two meetings with the partners of the consortium have been organized, the first one for the elaboration of the work planning of the project, and the second one for discussing the evolution of the project, which resulted into some adjustments and new actions. Three activities have been organized for the participating BG&A. First of all, the official launch of the project was done during the kickoff meeting in Botanic Garden Meise on the 12th of May 2017. During this meeting, the objectives and the international background of the project were presented, the work planning was discussed and adjusted, and the test cases were presented and approved. Moreover, two training sessions for surveying the test cases have been organized, the first one on the 9th of June 2017. The program featured a general introduction on the Belgian project, presentations on the available information sources and tools, on the test cases, and guidelines and instructions for making surveys and taking samples. A practical demonstration of these activities was also done in the APM collections. A second training day was organized on the 27th March 2018, intended as a rehearsal and refresher course, and for providing the opportunity to receive the training to the gardeners and staff of gardens which had missed the earlier training sessions. The test cases and their detection were again presented, as well as newly developed leaflets about these cases. Feedback was sought from the participants about the system for data capture and transmission developed by BePSN; a demonstration was done on trees in the collections using the electronic Plant Health Checker form on smart phone. Two meetings of the partners with the members of the Advisory Board including FPS Health have been organized. The first one coincided with the kickoff meeting, and the mid-term meeting has taken place in Brussels on the 27th of April 2018. Moreover, the communication between the partners of the Belgian project and the International Plant Sentinel Network secretariat and Euphresco has been assured. Questions were transmitted and resolved, new international developments have been reported to the partners, conversely transmitting information about the Belgian project to IPSN. The progress of the Belgian project was communicated to FPS Health by mail and phone on several occasions. Further on, for the coordination of the project the scientific results and administrative and financial information were collected from the partners. For the outreach and dissemination of information on BePSN to the broader public, the prices for the production of weatherproof information panels have been checked, while the practical possibilities for the their placement in each garden have been discussed. The forms for making phytosanitary observations on trees (Plant Health Checker) have been translated in Dutch and in French, and made available to the participating gardens. In a second phase, we combined the forms for both deciduous trees and conifers into a unique PHC form. Moreover, concise information leaflets have been elaborated for the on-site surveys of the selected case organisms. For the capture and handling of the survey data, an open information system has been developed, using web forms in three languages. These electronic forms in Google Drive have been made available to the participants, in order to make records with a smart phone or tablet. The launch of the second phase of the international project (Euphresco-IPSN2) was done during the 6th Global Botanic Gardens Congress in Geneva in June 2017, with a special symposium entitled ‘Prevention is better than cure: providing an early warning system for new and emerging plant pests and diseases’. A. Ronse gave a presentation about ‘BePSN, a Belgian network in the frame of the International Plant Sentinel Network (Euphresco-IPSN2)’. Additionally, she has presented the Belgian project during an international teleconference with partners of IPSN on 23 January 2018, which arouse much interest about our system for making electronic surveys and handling the data. For the trainings about the selected case organisms, the NRL partners have prepared and given presentations on their distribution, symptoms and control. They have also taught how to take samples and transmit them to the laboratories. Moreover, the diagnostic labs have tested several methods for the identification of the targeted organisms, retrieved from the literature. These methods were adapted in order to develop operationally feasible detection methods. The validation of the PCR test for the detection of Sirococcus tsugae has been done by tests with positive DNA samples, including tests of sensitivity and matrix effects. For the cases of Thaumetopoea pityocampa and of root knot nematodes, identifications can be made based on morphological characters and diagnostic protocols. Within the collections of participating BG&A, surveys have been made of more than fifty trees in four gardens. The records of disease symptoms were made using the standardized forms (Plant Health Checker), either in paper forms (54 records) or with the electronic PHC in Google Drive (25 records). The reported symptoms were screened, and a first-line alert and diagnosis was performed by the gardens, based on the information obtained through the trainings and workshops. Most of the surveyed trees displayed no suspect symptoms, with the exception of five trees. Samples of trees with suspect symptoms were examined by the experts from ILVO. Samples of diseased conifers have been shown in some cases to be infested by fungi, which could be identified, but were not related to the test case organisms. Some other samples of conifers without fungal diseases were also examined for insects or mites, but nothing was found. As only few samples had been sent spontaneously by the BG&A, the NRLs initiated a systematic campaign for taking samples onsite in the collections of the gardens, especially for the nematode and Phytoplasma test case. In APM and Plantentuin UGent seven samples of Ulmus and Zelkova roots and surrounding soil were taken. No juveniles of Meloidogyne sp. were found in the roots. Some juveniles were found in the soil, but these belonged to another species. However, one of the samples from Meise was found to contain Candidatus Phytoplasma ulmi. This is the first Belgian record of this species, and a notification was sent to FASFC. It concerns a young tree raised in Belgium from seeds collected in Sicily.
Number of pages: 35
Publication year:2018