The Kingdom's Plant Shield: New Lists to Combat Agricultural Pests.

The National Center for Plant and Animal Pest and Disease Prevention and Control has issued updated lists of regulated plant pests in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in a move aimed at preserving the agricultural sector and enhancing plant health. These new lists are effective as of their publication date in the Official Gazette, serving as the official and mandatory reference for all concerned parties and replacing previous regulations.

The new lists cover a wide spectrum of quarantine and non-quarantine pests, classifying them precisely into categories including insects, mites, fungi, viruses, and various plant diseases. The quarantine pest list includes dangerous species such as the Sabadilla fruit fly, the Guava fruit fly, the Caribbean fruit fly, the Longhorned Borer beetle, as well as Japanese Strawberry Mosaic Virus, Pepper Weevil, Apple Stock Borer, the Red-necked Longhorn Beetle, Mango Fruit Fly, Corn Leafhopper, European Corn Borer, Colorado Potato Beetle, and others.

The lists also include fungal and viral diseases that threaten agricultural production, such as *Rhizoctonia solani*, *Pythium spp*, and *Fusarium xylarioides*, in addition to Citrus Mosaic Virus, Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus, Tomato Infectious Yellow Virus, Citrus Vein Enation Virus, as well as diseases like Citrus Greening, Citrus Canker, and Coconut Cadang-Cadang Viroid.

The Center explained that the preparation of these updated lists was based on precise scientific foundations, taking into account the actual threats posed by these pests to local crops and assessing the risks associated with each species. The Center emphasized that the purpose of this update is to strengthen prevention and control measures, and to enable the public and private sectors to take the necessary actions to protect crops and ensure the sustainability of agricultural production in the Kingdom.