The National Plant Diagnostic Network's 7th National Meeting
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Weeklong conference featuring presentations, workshops, and tours to be held September 9–13, 2024, in Portland, ME
By Tania Brenes-Arguedas, PhD, NPDN National Coordinator, and Alicyn Smart, DPM, NPDN Deputy Executive Director
The National Plant Diagnostic Network (NPDN, www.npdn.org) is a consortium of plant-disease diagnostic labs representing every state and territory of the U.S. Its mission is to support plant health and biosecurity in U.S. agricultural and natural ecosystems by providing expert diagnostic capacity, communication, coordination, and quality pest and disease diagnostic information.
NPDN History and Purpose
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) and the Office of Homeland Security created the NPDN to enhance agricultural biosecurity by detecting instances of biological attacks. More than twenty years later, the NPDN is still a key component of national plant health and biosecurity.
The NPDN mission is to support U.S. plant health and biosecurity by providing expert diagnostic capacity, communication, coordination, and quality pest and disease diagnostic information.
At the core of the NPDN are 120-plus plant diagnostic labs. These are independent university or agency labs that serve, first and foremost, their own clientele in their state. As part of the NPDN network, NPDN labs support plant health agencies in their state and nationally.
A key goal of the NPDN is to ensure effective communication and productive collaborations among diagnostic labs, regulatory partners, and plant-health communities. The NPDN provides networking opportunities, connections, and collaboration space for the diagnostic community.
The National Meeting
The NPDN’s largest networking gathering is the National Meeting, held every two years. The 2024 NPDN National Meeting will be held the entire week of September 9–13, with the general session occurring on September 10 and 11 in Portland, Maine, and workshops and tours later in the week.
The meeting aims to increase the national capacity of members and member labs in prevention, rapid detection, and rapid response to biological threats to the U.S. food supply and agriculture across the public and private sectors.
With diagnostician turnover due to retirements and the influx of new diagnosticians stepping into these roles, it is now more critical than ever to build and share knowledge about identifying threats from pests, diseases, contaminants, and disasters.
The NPDN National Meeting aims to increase the national capacity of members and member labs in prevention, rapid detection, and rapid response to biological threats to the U.S. food supply and agriculture.
The meeting will host highly qualified expert speakers presenting on topics such as emerging pests and pathogens and methods for detection. Seven hands-on workshops will be provided over two full days of the meeting, advancing attendees’ knowledge on various topics and benefiting the entire network. Two tours will explore plant diseases and pests in Acadia National Park and wild blueberry fields.
Visit www.npdn.org/2024_National_Meeting/2024_national_meeting for more information about this year’s event.