Expert Assessment of Biological Risks (ERB) unit (Angers site) of the Plant Health Laboratory

The Expert Assessment of Biological Risks (ERB) unit oversees, in conjunction with ANSES's Risk Assessment Department, the expert appraisals conducted as part of the work of the Expert Committee on "Biological risks for plant health".

Expert appraisal activities

In accordance with international standards, the unit carries out expert appraisals of scientific publications and available data (biological, economic, etc.) on pests in order to conduct pest risk analyses. 

The expert appraisals carried out also cover other areas of risk assessment in the field of plant health to provide scientific and technical support for:

• measures for managing pest outbreaks;
• the validation of plant treatment processes, in compliance with international standards on plant protection measures;
• changes in the regulations on pest management methods;
• assessments of the effectiveness of alternative pest control methods.

The expert appraisals’ conclusions assist the national and international managing authorities in determining, among other things, whether a pest should be regulated or deregulated, and in defining the types of plant protection measures that may need to be taken.

Research activities

The ERB unit initiates research projects, including the development of the Biological Organisms data Retrieval and Ranking system (BiOR²) tool between 2015 and 2016. The ultimate objective of this tool is the classification of pests according to the risk they pose for a given territory. It combines a database of pests in metropolitan and overseas France, software interfaces for processing data based on pest risk analysis principles, and a multi-criterion analysis tool.

The ERB unit also collaborates with national and European partners such as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and national agencies from other European Union Member States, as part of projects and training programmes.