Plant pest and disease diagnostics

Area of Expertise:
Services:

AFBI retains skilled personnel who are trained and experienced in entomology, plant pathology and plant identification. Often, a pest, disease or weed problem is presented as a sample collected from a crop or product. Typically, these are then assigned to the relevant laboratory for identification, ensuring that all samples are properly labelled and logged for traceability. Further information provided on Bee health, Potato plant health and Potato flea beetles.

Identification of plant pests, pathogens and weeds

Accurate identification of plant pests, pathogens and weeds is crucial to implementing proper management strategies for the problems that they cause. This is particularly relevant when considering integrated pest, weed and disease management.

The wide range of problems presented necessitates many diagnostic techniques. These include consultations with growers or plant health inspectors to assess the source and symptoms of the problem, expert laboratory examination of samples and high-level molecular tools for species and strain identification.

The results of these procedures are then brought together to provide practical answers to the problems concerned.