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

• their involvement in the epidemiological surveillance platform for plant health (ESV), in conjunction with the Lyon Laboratory's EAS unit ;
• phytopharmacovigilance, through the analysis of botanical data, in order to detect unintended effects of agricultural practices on plants. The laboratory also participates in joint projects with INRAE, through the CASPER unit of the Lyon Laboratory, 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) 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 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, for methodological aspects, and through the study of potentially increased virulence in the event of crosses of native and introduced pests, for research issues. It capitalises on existing networks involved in plant health organisation (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: metropolitan France, Mediterranean countries, countries of the European Union, and French Overseas Départements and Regions.