Pest risk categorization – New plant health regulations for Norway : Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Plant Health of the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment

In an ongoing effort to renew Norwegian regulations related to plants and measures against plant pests, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority asked The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment (VKM) which of the currently regulated pests that should still be regulated (either as a quarantine pest (QP) or a regulated non-quarantine pest (RNQP) for Norway), and whether there are any species that should be deregulated. Following such a risk categorization process the Norwegian Food Safety Authority will determine if pest risk assessments (PRA’s) should be performed for quarantine pests. International trade regulations define quarantine pests (QPs) as pests of potential economic importance to an area that are not yet present, or are present but not widely distributed and are subject to official control. A regulated non-quarantine pest (RNQP) is a pest whose presence in plants for planting affects the intended use of those plants with an economically unacceptable impact and which is therefore subject to official control within the territory of the importing contracting party and regulated in international trade. In this report VKM presents an overview of the pest categorisation of some of the pests regulated in the current Norwegian regulation and concludes on whether each pest should be regulated as a potential QP, RNQP or none of these categories for Norway. The pest categorisation process – the process of determining whether a pest has or has not the characteristics of a QP or RNQP – has been done using the FinnPRIO model. The FinnPRIO model is a pest risk ranking tool that uses a hypervolume approach carry out quick, semiquantitative expert assessments and that allows a high number of pest risk categorizations to be done cost-effectively and in a short period of time. In total 33 pests were assessed as per request from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority. Of those 33 pests VKM suggests that the vast majority – 32 pests – are kept as a QPs for Norway. How