The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published estimated survey parameters for the detection of Bactericera cockerelli (tomato potato psyllid) and the associated bacterium 'Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum', two priority pests listed in EU legislation. The technical report, released on 29 June 2026, provides quantitative values for sampling effectiveness, design prevalence, and relative risk, derived from expert knowledge elicitations conducted since 2025. These parameters are intended to support EU Member States in designing statistically sound and risk-based detection surveys, and will be integrated into the EFSA Plant Pest Survey Toolkit to harmonise surveillance across the Union.
The report is part of an ongoing EFSA initiative to fill data gaps for priority pests where scientific literature lacks specific survey information. Since 2025, EFSA has carried out similar expert elicitations for other pests, including Agrilus anxius, Dendrolimus sibiricus, Anoplophora chinensis, Agrilus planipennis, and Anoplophora glabripennis, each resulting in a dedicated technical report. The request for this work came from the European Commission, under question number EFSA-Q-2026-00052, and the report was authored by EFSA staff Alexandre Nougadère, Stephen Parnell, Daria Rzepecka, Tomasz Kaluski, and Sybren Vos, with contributions from the University of Thessaly.
The estimated parameters are designed to help national plant protection authorities optimise survey design, balancing detection probability with resource constraints. For EU producers of solanaceous crops (such as potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers), improved surveillance could lead to earlier detection and containment of the psyllid and the bacterium, which cause zebra chip disease and significant yield losses. EU consumers may benefit from reduced pesticide use if targeted surveys enable precise interventions. National authorities will gain a standardised methodology, but may face increased administrative burden in adapting existing survey programmes to the new parameters. The EFSA Plant Pest Survey Toolkit, which will incorporate these values, is expected to facilitate cross-border comparability of survey results, supporting the EU's overall plant health strategy under Regulation (EU) 2016/2031.