S-14. Managing the Risk of Introducing Seed-transmitted Viruses associated with Import of French Bean under WTO Regime

French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), an important pulse crop grown widely in India is susceptible to >70 viruses, of which, 25 are seed-transmitted. A preliminary risk analysis revealed that out of these 25 nine are not reported from India and ten are not reported to infect P. vulgaris in India and can be introduced through import of seeds. This calls for stringent quarantine processing of germplasm and bulk imports. As per the Plant Quarantine (Regulation of Import into India) Order, 2003, the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources is empowered for quarantine processing of germplasm including transgenic planting material imported for research purposes into the country. During the last 10 years, a total of 1563 samples were imported from Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center, Taiwan, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia and 10 different countries. They were grown in post-entry quarantine greenhouses for screening against exotic viruses or strains thereof. The plants of the accessions showing virus-like symptoms were further subjected to a combination of more than one virus detection techniques viz., infectivity test, electron microscopy, variants of ELISA, DIBA and RT-PCR. Eleven viruses were intercepted in imports from different countries. Cherry leaf roll virus, economically important and yet not reported from India and four viruses viz., Alfalfa mosaic virus, Southern bean mosaic virus, Soybean mosaic virus and Tomato black ring virus, not known to occur in India on P. vulgaris were intercepted, whereas vectors of these viruses are present in India. Six viruses intercepted viz., Bean common mosaic virus, Bean common mosaic necrosis virus, Bean yellow mosaic virus, Cucumber mosaic virus, Tomato aspermy virus and Tobacco rattle virus are known to be present in India. However, there are reports of worldwide distribution of different virulent strains of these viruses. The infected plants were incinerated and harvest from only virus-free plants was released to the indenters. The present findings highlight the importance of risk analysis and quarantine processing in excluding the transboundary movement of viruses. Under the WTO regime the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement stipulates internationally accepted standards for quarantine and phytosanitation to be adopted for global movement in trade of agricultural commodities.