Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) is no longer classified as a quarantine pest in the European Union. Tomato seeds will continue to be tested on ToBRFV in a similar way as before and can only be sold if they are free of ToBRFV. Young plants from nurseries are checked by National Plant Protection Organizations (NPPO) before going to a grower.
Below are the steps and the extra health checks that Bayer does to bring healthy seeds to the market.
Seed company safety checks
Every company has to follow the local phytosanitary rules. Each country's requirements secure the level of seed safety the country wants to reach. Besides those official rules, seed companies have internal standards.
"Those internal standards are most of the time stricter than governmental rules because customers require this, or companies want to produce a higher quality product," says Bayer's Harmen Hummelen.
Quality management system
This is a system of procedures describing every step in the seed production process. An important part of the Quality management system is the process improvement process. This means that in case of nonconformities, will be analyzed and the process improved. Maintaining such a system is a lot of work but it results in a very high-quality standard, which then again increases seeds health safety
Seed production checks
Seeds are produced under strict hygienic conditions. This starts with the parental seeds that are produced in a known location and tested before starting to make hybrid seeds. During the crop, female and male parent plants are checked on plant health every week by experts. Next to routine testing of plant material, a diagnosis will be done to check suspicious plants.
"In this way, the health of parental plants is continuously monitored to assure that the fruits and seeds produced are also healthy," Harmen Hummelen explains.
Seed washing
Tomatoes are harvested and seeds are taken out of the fruits and then cleaned and washed. By washing the seeds an extra safety guarantee is built in.
Seed packing
"Cleaning and priming of the dry seed is done after seed health tests are done. This way the machines and buildings where seeds are processed stay clean. The final step is that seeds are packed in bags or tins and sealed."
Seed health checks
The final check on ToBRFV is a laboratory test. This test is done by the government or under the jurisdiction of the government. The testing method is standardized and approved by the countries' NPPO. Often the testing method is a standard proposed by the International Seed Federation and publicly available. (link to ToBRFV seed health test method).
Different country's testing methods
Europe is testing ToBRFV on all seeds produced and coming into the EU with standardized methods. Every country in the world has their own responsibility for guaranteeing plant and seed health. This means that testing methods and also thresholds can be different from one country to another. One of the most commonly used methods to detect ToBRFV is the PCR method, a popular laboratory technique detecting the DNA of the disease. The amount of DNA is expressed as a CT value which maximum acceptable level may vary country by country.
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Transportation of seed bags
As long as seeds stay inside the original packaging the seed health is secured. As soon as seed bags are opened, outside air and fingers of people will touch the seeds and this can be a source of contamination. Plant nursery people and growers should realize that hygiene is important from the moment the sealed seed bag is opened.
"Cross-contamination may happen when seeds of different quality, different crops and different origins are handled on the same desk, or the same sowing line," says Harmen Hummelen.
Seed security documents
"Seeds will always have a Phyto certificate or a Plant passport. This will show the seeds are officially registered, which means the country of production is known and seed health tests have been done according to official regulations. The lack of official documents may indicate that seeds are locally produced without official tests. These can be regional varieties or cheap seeds but may pose a risk for the grower and for other plants in the same nursery."
All steps described above support the delivery of healthy seeds to growers whether it concerns Quarantine diseases or not. A company like Bayer produces seeds based on a complete quality management system that covers all bases. This way growers get healthy seed and food production is secured.
For more information:
Bayer
www.bayer.com