Overview
- The Ministry of Agriculture announced a confirmed detection in Seignosse (Landes), validated by ANSES’s national reference laboratory.
- The Nouvelle-Aquitaine prefect is convening local stakeholders today to set mandatory measures that aim to prevent spread to other forest massifs.
- The nematode, native to North America, is vectored by wood-boring beetles, blocks sap flow in conifers and can quickly kill pines.
- The organism is designated by the European Union as a priority quarantine pest, following earlier EU detections in Portugal (1999) and Spain (2008).
- Officials state there is no risk to human or animal health, and foresters in the Landes and the wider Gascogne pine stands are urged to increase vigilance.