phytopathology

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2020 the "International Year of Plant Health" (IYPH).

In this way the importance of plants and their health for food security, raw materials, biodiversity and the various contributions by the planet's agricultural, forestry, aquatic and other ecosystems has been recognised.

The control of the health of plants is defined as the discipline in which measures are set and implemented to combat harmful organisms in order to prevent their spread to new areas.

In recent years, international trade in plant material and seeds has intensified, increasing the risk of introducing pathogenic organisms into new geographic areas.

Already today, in the world, yield losses caused by plant pests and diseases are estimated at an average of 21.5% for wheat, 30.0% for rice, 22.6% for corn, 17.2% for potatoes and 21.4% on soybeans.

We recall that only these crops currently meet half of the global caloric requirement. Therefore, it is clear how necessary it is to develop common strategies to identify, assess and mitigate these risks through appropriate phytosanitary measures.

In Europe, for example, starting from 14 December 2019, the "plant passport" became mandatory which provides for a "new European plant health regime to ensure the more homogeneous application of plant health rules in the various Member States ”. To protect the various geographical areas, to continue to guarantee the free exchange of plants, prevention is implemented.

The control, currently performed by the competent bodies, takes place through consolidated analytical methods, which at times may no longer be adequate in particular situations such as emergencies.

In recent years, new technologies and increasingly efficient tests have become available on the market, in line with the new control requirements of the regulatory bodies and such as to push the latter to supplant, in some cases, the use of the ELISA technique and replace it with BIOMOLECULAR techniques.

The kits proposed in this section, developed by our researchers, are intended for the control of quarantine pathogens and pathogens that can have important repercussions on the quality and quantity of important crops and products (e.g. stone fruit, pome fruit and wine).

All the tests, united by ease of use, speed and reliability, help prevention operators, producers and anyone else involved in these checks in screening .