14th Annual Meeting of Caribbean Plant Health Directors Forum (CPHD) Ends

Updates were received from Partner Agencies, Technical Working Groups (TWGs) and lead technical experts. Some of the areas covered included:

1. Tuta absoluta (leaf miner) which is a destructive pest of solanaceous crops, which include tomato, peppers and eggplant and the continued support for trapping and surveillance, diagnostics, emergency response and associated knowledge management;
2. The Tropical race 4 affecting bananas, plantains and other Musa species already identified in two countries in the region and the continued work and support and the continued surveillance and programs of exclusion activities to prevent entry in countries;
3. Citrus greening and its impact on trade and food of citrus and the review of the diagnostics protocol within the framework of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) workshops;
4. Caribbean Biosecurity Interceptions System;
5. Technical Sessions including Risk Based Sampling (RBS), Sea Cargo Containers and Giant African Land Snails (GALS)

The CPHD meeting launched and endorsed the Caribbean Biosecurity Interceptions System (C-BIS) - a tool designed to address the issue of updated pest lists and to achieve an intervention strategy for surveillance at ports for the prevention of the entry of pests and invasive species in the region. The system was adopted in principle by the forum.