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International Seed Testing Association 6th Seed Health Symposium, Kruger National Park, South Africa, 14 – 18th April 2008.
The International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) has member laboratories in over 70 countries world wide, and its aim is to develop and publish standard procedures in the field of seed testing. ISTA’s vision is to create uniformity in seed testing by producing internationally agreed rules for seed sampling and testing, accrediting laboratories, promoting research, and providing international seed analysis certificates, training and dissemination of knowledge in seed science and technology to facilitate seed – trading nationally and internationally. ISTA has 14 technical committees responsible for the development of new methodology for seed testing and this symposium was organised by the ISTA technical committee for seed health. There were 61 participants from around the globe, including 32 from the African continent with 23 being from South Africa itself.
This representation of delegates from African countries was welcomed as ISTA is under represented in this continent.
The conference was held at the Berg en Dal rest camp, situated at the southern end of the Kruger National Park. Berg en Dal means mountain and valley in Afrikaans, and indeed the camp was surrounded by hills and valleys. A welcome reception was held on the Monday evening for delegates and it included a traditional Boma barbeque with music and dancing. It was a lively, colourful occasion and many delegates enthusiastically joined in the dancing!
On Tuesday, after the welcome address from the ISTA seed health committee chairperson Prof TAS Aveling, and Dr Michael Muschick the ISTA secretary general, the programme o f presentations commenced with the topic of seed treatments to control pathogens. This included not only the application of traditional chemical seed treatments but physical seed sanitation methods such as thermo-therapy and electron treatments which are necessary for seed treatment in organic farming. There were also interesting presentations from students of Pretoria University, addressing the need for a sustainable seed health future in South Africa, and the problems faced by small-scale subsistence farmers in seed storage leading to deterioration in seed health and subsequent food shortages.
In the afternoon a workshop was held to discuss treated seed and seed health testing. Seed is often traded with seed treatment applied. Many participants tested treated seed and some companies used this testing as a treatment efficacy test. However, it was argued that this does not give a true reflection of seed lot health. ISTA Test validation is only carried out on untreated seeds and it is complex and expensive to validate each ISTA test method for every possible seed treatment.
On Wednesday the presentations focused on the South African seed trade, the work of SANSOR (South African National Seed Organisation) and seed health issues with an interesting talk from Dr Siham Assad on the work of ICARDIA (International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas) and their aim to improve the gene-bank of seed available to countries in central and west Asia and north Africa.
Following this a poster session was held, and each author gave a 10 minute resume of their work. In the afternoon, after a presentation on the ISTA Seed Health Validation Programme, another discussion workshop was held on sample size and seed health testing.
This allowed participants to express what their requirements were for health testing and whether sample sizes should be specified by ISTA. This turned out to be a complex issue with many risk factors concerning different pathogens having to be considered.
On Thursday, the final day of the symposium, the topic was seed-borne pathogens and seed health testing techniques. The morning started with a plenary lecture from Dr Guro Brodal of Norway on Fusarium head blight in cereals, an area of specific interest for those of us living in colder northern climates. She also discussed work she plans to conduct into mycotoxins in Fusarium species which may allow collaboration between our seed health laboratories. In this session I presented my work on the relationship between seedling emergence and the DNA loading of seed with Microdochium nivale as detected by real-time quantitative PCR. Other novel seed health testing methods were described in subsequent presentations. In the afternoon another poster session was held in the same format as on Wednesday and then the symposium was closed by Prof Reyes Blanco.
The gala dinner that evening was in the form of a Bush Barbeque. This involved an hour and a half game drive followed by a barbeque in the ‘bush’. We were surrounded by vigilant game wardens with big guns, but we were making so much noise I doubt any predators would come near! The Seed Health Committee chairman and her team of organisers put together a thoroughly informative and enjoyable symposium. Hosting it in South Africa allowed more opportunity for the specific problems facing African seed producers and growers to be highlighted. The symposium also allowed me the opportunity to discuss my work with the small but scattered international community of seed health testers who are working with real-time PCR and I was able to draw parallels with their work and forge new research links. I would like to thank the BSPP for funding my travel and allowing me the opportunity to attend and present at this symposium.
Marian McNeil, SASA, Edinburgh