The Plant Health Laboratory’s employees provide support for surveillance, in particular through:

•    their participation in the epidemiological surveillance platform for plant health (ESV), in conjunction with the Lyon Laboratory's Epidemiology and Surveillance Support (EAS) unit;
•    phytopharmacovigilance, through the analysis of botanical data, in order to detect unintended effects of agricultural practices on plants. The laboratory also takes part in joint projects with the CASPER unit of the Lyon laboratory (an INRAE contracted unit), on emerging resistance to plant protection products in pest populations.

Validation of analytical methods 

The validation of updated or innovative analytical methods for the identification and characterisation of emerging pests (as part of import or export controls or official surveillance) is a major part of this mission carried out by the LSV. It concerns:

•    the surveillance plans (surveillance of regulated pests, national biological surveillance) established by the Ministry of Agriculture;
•    epidemiological monitoring, carried out as part of projects with the production sectors;
•    its contribution to the national epidemiological surveillance platform for plant health (ESV) in conjunction with the Lyon Laboratory's EAS unit. The laboratory makes its data available to the platform as needed and provides it with scientific support in analytical fields.

This mission is continuously changing and innovating, in particular via multigene phylogenetic and intra-specific taxonomic approaches, and through the study of potentially increased virulence and aggressivity in the event of crosses of native and introduced pests. It capitalises on existing networks involved in organising plant health (production sectors, inter-professional organisations, the Regional Federation for Combating Harmful Organisms (FREDON) and the National Federation for Combating Harmful Organisms (FDGDON), etc.) in order to alert the official services to the development of risks in the different geographical areas: mainland France, Mediterranean countries, countries of the European Union, and French overseas départements and regions.