ANSES and FREDON France sign a framework cooperation agreement
On 26 February 2015, Marc Mortureux, Director General of the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) and Jean-Paul Dalies, President of FREDON France (National Federation for control of harmful organisms) have signed a framework agreement whose goal is to strengthen the current relationship between the two bodies in the field of plant health and invasive plants.
ANSES and FREDON France have already set up several partnerships in the fields of plant health and the surveillance of harmful organisms. These partnerships take many forms:
- collaboration in official monitoring programmes run by the Ministry of Agriculture, from sampling through to diagnosis and laboratory analysis;
- study and research programmes, in which ANSES's reference laboratories work alongside the FREDON laboratories in their respective areas of competence;
- in terms of scientific expertise, in the framework of the prioritising and monitoring of quarantine pests;
- on projects run by the RFSV (French plant health network), including training.
This new agreement formalises and strengthens collaboration on the following topics:
- the characterisation of the emergence of pests and diseases in native and invasive plants;
- the unintended effects of plant protection products and phytopharmacovigilance;
- the development of methods of analysis (identification, detection, quantification, etc.);
- contributing to epidemiological surveillance in France and monitoring plant health by involving stakeholders in the field and laboratories.
The agreement also provides a framework for the exchange of expertise, know-how, data and resources.
About ANSES
The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) was created on 1 July 2010 to develop resources for detection and monitoring along the entire food chain, and to assess microbiological, chemical and physical risks to the health of humans, animals and plants. Its activities are based on independent collective scientific expert assessments with the assistance of laboratories and of committees of external experts. In its missions, to issue opinions and recommendations for the public authorities, it benefits from the knowledge generated by its science watch, research and reference activities. The 2014 Act on the future of farming also assigns ANSES new missions in the field of plant protection.
About FREDON France
FREDON France is the French network for plant protection, declared a Health-Oriented Body (OVS) in 2014 by the French government for its independence, its impartiality and its competence. Its mission is to monitor France's plant heritage to detect the outbreak of diseases. Its regional and local agencies advise professionals, communities and individuals on protecting plants against health hazards and provide training in the recognition of these hazards (including invasive plants), and the associated treatments. On the strength of its 81 years of existence, FREDON France has a reliable record in the service of food safety with high-quality field expertise throughout mainland and overseas France.