COST Action 850: Legal & Safety

Ralf-Udo Ehlers: Safety and regulation of entomopathogenic nematodes (PDF, 82 KB)

Requirements for registration of EPN in different countries. Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain do not require registration.

Country	Requirements
Australia	No, importation and release of exotic species requires permits of a series of authorities (see Bedding et al., 1996)
Austria	Yes, although following the requirements for chemical pesticides, the time-consuming procedure for EPN is limited to data which are in a reasonable context with biocontrol agent
Belgium	Required for new EPN species not marketed yet
Brasil	Registration required already for field testing of indigenous species
Canada	No, but guidelines for registration are being developed
Czech Republic	Yes, requirements include efficacy data from field trails
European Union	No, Directive 91/414/EEC distinguishes between chemical pesticides and micro-organisms and viruses. Nematodes and macro-organisms are not mentioned; EU tries to avoid implementation of registration for low risk products
Hungary	Yes, requirements include efficacy data from field trails
Ireland	Yes, new law recently implemented
Japan	Yes, data requirements are not different from those required for chemical compounds, costs are enormously high
Netherlands	Required for new EPN species not marketed yet
New Zealand	Yes, although other macro-organisms do not require registration, nematodes must be registered (see Bedding et al., 1996)
Norway	Yes, requirements follow recommendations of the OECD guidelines, except that the assessment of the environmental risk is not necessary
Poland	Yes, efficacy data from field trails in Poland requested
Sweden	Yes, EPN must be approved under the Act on Preliminary Examination of Biological Pesticides, limited data requirement
Switzerland	All biocontrol agents need to be registered; EPN's are registered based on published efficacy data and safety information, accopanied by descriptions of the production and quality control procedures
United Kingdom	No, indigenous EPN do not need registration, but the introduction of non-indigenous species or strains is controlled through the Wildlife and Countryside Act (see Richardson, 1996)
United States	No, but any import of living material must be accompanied by shipment permits, release of exotic species is regulated by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and other federal organisations (see Rizvi et al., 1996; Akhurst and Smith, 2002)