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Objectives of the Seed Health Laboratory (SHL)
The Seed Health Laboratory was established in 1982 to
ensure that the movement of Germplasm into and out of ICARDA’s, was free of
disease. The material includes breeding materials, seed increases, collection of
land races and wild relatives for storage in ICARDA’s gene bank
ICARDA’s Seed Distribution
ICARDA receives and distributes tens of thousands of seed samples per year
Distribution includes Central Asia West Asian and North African countries, America, Europe, E Asia and
Australia
Also, tons of basic (elite) seed of released cultivars are distributed to
National Programs in the Area
The Main Responsibilities of the Seed Health Laboratory are:
I. Seed Health Testing
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Imported Seed - Post entry
Quarantine
Prevent entry of Quarantine
significant pests/ pathogens (QSP/P) in accordance with the Syrian
Quarantine Regulations. If entry of pathogen/pest of a QSP/P does occur then
the SHL succeeds then spread is prevented by the appropriate quarantine
procedures.
Exported Seed
The SHL ensures that seed
produced at ICARDA is disease free by field inspections, fumigation and seed
treatments and dispatches the seed with the required documents according to
quarantine regulations of recipient’s countries.
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The Seed Health Testing
Methods of ICARDA’s SHL for the following pests are as follows:
However the laboratory
is moving toward testing of seed-borne pathogens by using biotechnological
methods.
II. Field Inspection
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III. Cleaning ICARDA Gene-Bank Collection
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Only healthy seeds are stored for Base and Active
Collection, which could be achieved by:
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Planting seeds in specific plots known to be clean
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Testing seed for seed-borne pathogens
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Freedom of ICARDA gene-bank accessions from Seed -Borne Diseases
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IV. Training of Human Resources & Establishing New SHL
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The SHL has a major
role in training national scientists and technically assists in establishing new
SHL in the CWANA region. It performs this mission by:
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Individual Training
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Headquarters Group Courses
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Non-headquarters Training courses
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V. Research on Seed-Borne Pathogens
Seed Health Lab is conducting in the following areas: Disease epidemiology, Rate of transmission from seed
to plant, Dissemination, Predictions of yield losses, Improvement of inoculation
techniques, Improvement of detection techniques in seed, Screening for
resistance and IPM or IDM.
VI. Seed Treatment
The types of seed treatment used are:
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Fumigation/Low Temperature Treatment to control storage pests
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Slurry widespectrum fungicides
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