Globodera rostochiensis absent from Costa Rica
The EPPO Secretariat has recently been informed by the NPPO of Costa Rica that Globodera rostochiensis (EPPO A2 quarantine pest) is absent from this country.
The record G. rostochiensis in Costa Rica dates back to 1973 when it was first reported in potato fields by an Costarican agronomist and its identification was confirmed in the Netherlands. This first survey had been initiated by a warning notice concerning the risk of presence of G. rostochiensis in the neighbouring country Panama. During the period 1975-1977, more surveys were done by the same agronomist but the nematode could not be found in any sample taken from the same area. Inoculation of potato plants with cysts recovered during the first finding, under greenhouse conditions, in sterilized and unsterilized soils, demonstrated that this nematode did not affect the plants, did not produce larvae nor cysts. Successive surveys were then carried out in potato fields in many parts of the country including neighbouring regions to Panama and places where the nematode had first been found. These surveys were done in 1981, 1984-85, 1988, 1989, 1995-1997, 1998 by the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with various partners (Potato International Centre (CIP), Agricultural Research Institute of Panama, Regional Cooperative Potato Programme (PRECODEPA), OIRSA). All these successive surveys failed to detect G. rostochiensis. In conclusion, G. rostochiensis should be considered as "Absent: pest no longer present" in Costa Rica.
Sources
NPPO of Costa Rica, 1999-06