Commodity risk assessment of Juglans regia plants from Moldova

Abstract The European Commission requested the EFSA Panel on Plant Health to prepare and deliver risk assessments for commodities listed in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2019 as ‘High risk plants, plant products and other objects’. Taking into account the available scientific information, including the technical information provided by the applicant country, this Scientific Opinion covers the plant health risks posed by the following commodities: dormant, free of leaves, bare‐rooted grafted plants and rootstocks of Juglans regia imported from Moldova. A list of pests potentially associated with the commodities was compiled. The relevance of any pest was assessed based on evidence following defined criteria. The EU‐quarantine pest Xiphinema rivesi non‐EU populations fulfilled these criteria and hence was selected for further evaluation. For this pest, the risk mitigation measures described in the technical dossier from Moldova were evaluated taking into account the possible limiting factors. An expert judgement is given on the likelihood of pest freedom for this pest taking into consideration the risk mitigation measures, including uncertainties associated with the assessment. The Expert Knowledge Elicitation indicated, with 95% certainty, that 9,959 or more bare‐rooted plants per 10,000 will be free from X. rivesi.