Laboratory proficiency tests are a great tool to assess the application of reference methods used by EU NRLs for the detection of quarantine fungal pathogens. At the end of each proficiency test, a report with the results will be sent to all participants and EU Commission. Proficiency tests are performed under accreditation according to the ISO 17043 standard.
EURL for fungi and oomycetes will organize at least one proficiency test per year for all EU NRLs, using morphological and molecular methods for pathogen detection.
ANSES offers Leila platform for the registration, organization and participation on proficiency tests. Access and more information about the platform is available in the following link. Guides and video tutorials are provided to help with the familiarization of the platform and for the creation of user accounts.
One of the EURL activities is to keep NRLs up to date about research, providing information on EU regulated fungal and oomycete plant pathogens.
To this aim, EURL will organize a one-day annual workshop to the EU NRLs and other invited researchers, about topics of interest in mycology and plant pathology, as well as EU regulations, biosecurity, pathogen outbreaks …
EURL for fungi and oomycetes is open to suggestions for the theme of the future workshops. Submission of topic suggestions can be sent through the formulary available in the EURL website.
EURL aims to support NRLs in the application of new diagnostic methods to detect quarantine fungal and oomycete species. In this section, diagnostic protocols will be available, indicating which ones have been validated by the EURL.
An annual training course will be organized for staff of EU NRLs, and if needed, from other laboratories and experts from third countries, with the aim to improve diagnostic skills. Training courses will be organized in our facilities, in the Mycology Unit of the ANSES Plant Health Laboratory, located in Nancy, France.
The scope of the trainings will cover from the diagnostic of a specific fungal or oomycete species, to the application of diagnostic methods such as real-time PCR, among others. The trainings will include theoretical and practical sessions, and will be organized for up to five or six participants per session, and several sessions if high demand.
Training sessions
Available soon
Save the date! First Workshop EURL for fungi and oomycetes
20th October 2020 - videoconference
The first EURL workshop organized on the 19th of March 2020 have been postponed due to the current situation about the coronavirus outbreak.
The workshop has been rescheduled on the 20th of October 2020 and will be celebrated by videoconference.
The agenda and the registration email will be send to all EU-NRLs in order to obtain information of the participants of the workshop. Once we know the number and contact email of all participants, we will send them the link for the videconference.
The platform that will be used is "Skype for business". A "test day" is planned few days before the workshop for those participants that wish to test their connection or the software (in case they are not familiar with). We will also send to the participants a user instructions manual for Skype for business. The final agenda will also be published here in the EURL website.
Some of the main points of the workshop include the presentation of the EURL and the current work programme, the projects we are working on, the EURL reference collection, the last expert missions of the EURL, and the current proficiency test 20Pcit and a discussion of the results of the previous one, 19FcirC. Moreover, we will have talks from our Desk Officer from the European Commission, the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO) and a guest speaker.
We look forward to meet you behind the screen!
19FcirC Proficiency Test
The first proficiency test organized by EURL will start in September 2019 and will be due by January 2020. This PT is based in the morphological and molecular detection and identification of Fusarium circinatum, the causal agent of the pine pitch canker.
Online registration is opened from the 26th of September, through Leila platform (https://leila.anses.fr/), and will close on the 14th of October.
Samples will be sent to the participants the 4th of November. The deadline to send back the results is the 9th of December.
The second week of January, all participants will receive the final report with the results of the proficiency test.
EURL Workplan
The current work program of EURL for fungi and oomycetes is valid for the period of January 2023 - December 2024.
It is structured in four main sections, grouping activities related to NRLs performance and activities, provide support and assistance to NRLs, assistance to EC and other organizations, and reagents and EURL reference collections, respectively.
The full work program can be downloaded in the link below.
NRLs Network
All officially appointed European Union National Reference Laboratories (EU-NRLs) in mycology are shown in the map.
EURL missions
EURL activities for the current working period (2019 - 2020) are classified in four groups:
Regulations
Introduction
Fungal plant pathology
Plant pathology is a discipline that studies diseases in plants. Disease agents can be very diverse, from phytoplasmas, virus, bacterias, fungi, nematodes to insects. Fungal plant diseases affect all types of plants and crops, causing abundant economic and ecologic loses worldwide.
Fungi are one of the most hyper diverse groups of organisms and play a fundamental contribution in all ecosystems – the estimated number of fungal species can be higher than 1.5 million species, being more than 8,000 plant pathogens (1,2). They participate in the carbon and nutrient cycles; decompose organic matter, and their roles range from mutualists, endophytes, symbionts, saprotrophs, and parasites and pathogens of plants, animals and humans. They are also able to produce valuable substances, like secondary metabolites and antibiotics, being penicillin the most famous one, discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1942, which is derived from a fungus called Penicillium.
Oomycetes, also known as water molds, are microorganisms situated in a different kingdom, named Chromalveolata. They are very similar morphologically to fungi and have been historically studied in mycology, but however, they are closely related to brown algae. This group of microorganisms host some of the most damaging plant pathogens to date, affecting forests, ornamental plants and agricultural crops (3).
One of the most tragic and remarkable plant diseases is potato blight caused by an oomycete, Phytophthora infestans. It was the causal agent of the Irish Potato Famine (or Great Famine) in mid 19th century, producing disease, starvation and emigration, reducing the Irish population more than 25%. Anton de Bary, a German mycologist who is considered the father of the actual plant pathology discipline, named P. infestans as the cause of the potato blight two decades after it (4).