How can innovative detection technologies strengthen global plant health and sustainable trade?

During the World Trade Organization’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Committee Thematic Session (October 2025), PurPest coordinator Andrea Ficke (NIBIO) presented the project’s vision and progress to an audience of international policymakers, national delegations, and plant-health...

The French Ministry of Agriculture has confirmed the first detection of the pine wood nematode (Bursaphelenchus xylophilus) in France, in the Landes region.
🔗 Official announcement (in French)

This pest, a priority quarantine organism in the EU, poses a major threat to pine forests, causing rapid tree decline and death.

The discovery highlights the urgent need for early detection...

The University of Neuchâtel (UniNe) welcomed Urte Puodziunaite from VolatileAI, who develops data processing pipelines for the Sensor System Prototype (SSP), including machine learning models for analysing volatile compound data.

Urte joined the UniNe team during the ongoing measurement campaign to gain a deeper understanding of sampling dynamics and to help implement a standardized...

Discover how Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) is revolutionising plant health monitoring.

Have you ever wondered how this cutting-edge technique helps detect plant pathogens before symptoms appear?

Our latest educational material explains how nanostructured SERS sensors amplify molecular signals to identify volatile organic compounds (VOCs) associated with pest and disease...

How can we sniff out plant pests and diseases?

Every year, large quantities of plant material are imported into Europe — and along with these plants, stowaways may arrive that can cause serious damage to forests, agriculture, and biodiversity. In this podcast, Andrea Ficke, coordinator of the PurPest project, explains how it is possible to create electronic noses (e-noses)...

Understanding and managing forest pests is more urgent than ever, and PurPest is at the forefront.

Stelios Kartakis, from Wageningen University and Research, presented the project’s latest findings at the International Pest Risk Research Group (IPRRG) meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

His presentation, “Modelling disease expression of Phytophthora ramorum to estimate potential economic...

We’re proud to share that Purpest will be represented at the upcoming World Trade Organization I  WTO (World Trade Organization)| SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures) Committee Thematic Session on “Science-Based SPS Import Controls to Facilitate Safe Trade”, taking place on 3–4 November 2025 in Geneva.

Our partner Andrea Ficke (NIBIO, Norway) will present recent...

The University of Neuchâtel (UniNe) is carrying out a second measurement campaign to test the new, improved version of the Sensor system prototype (SSP) developed by Chromatotec.

On 27 and 28 October, Axelle Fillinger and Stéphane Le Calvé (CNRS, Strasbourg) went to Neuchâtel to install the SSP together with the reference system (GC-PID). In parallel, the UniNe team will also be using the...

PurPest was represented at the German Congress of Plant Protection (Deutsche Pflanzenschutztagung), held from 7–10 October 2025 at the Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany. The event was organized by the Deutsche Phytomedizinische Gesellschaft e.V. (DPG) and the Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI).

In the scientific session “Biotechnical Plant Protection” chaired by Jürgen Gross, Ali...