Background
Since 2021, a large number of plant pests has been evaluated using EFSAs PeMoScoring tool (EFSA 2022). The group of pests receiving a score above a threshold value has been considered for further assessment by COM, but not all of these pests are proposed for a pest categorisation.
SLU Risk Assessment of Plant Pests was requested by the Swedish Board of Agriculture to provide feedback particularly for the group of plant pests proposed not to be considered for further pest categorisation. This group of pest includes, i) a group of four pests for which SLU Risk Assessment of Plant Pests has not previously done any evaluation and ii) species for which previous evaluation have been made (Björklund and Boberg, 2021a,b; 2022a,b,c,d; 2023).
A literature search was conducted to investigate whether any reports from Sweden or additional relevant information could be found for the first group of pests. The list of pests not proposed for further categorisation was then evaluated based on the information provided by COM (2023, unpublished) and previous evaluations performed.
The species in the first group of pests were:
• Erysiphe salmonii
• Pepo aphid-borne yellows virus
• Phytophthora rosacearum
• Sawadaea polyfida