From 16-20 June, over 65 members of the International Seed Health Initiative (ISHI) gathered in Sapporo, Japan, for the annual Technical Meeting.
This year’s meeting featured a new structure that allowed project leads to present progress and challenges on their projects in a plenary format, as well as make progress towards key milestones in the closed International Technical Group (ITG) meetings on the same day.
This meeting was also an opportunity for the entire group to dive deeper into the topic of PCR cut-off setting, which is a crucial issue to ensure the reliability of seed health testing results.
The group reached a decision to guide ISHI members and the broader Seed Health community in establishing detection limits within their laboratories. Specific actions will be further developed in the coming year.
During the social dinner on Monday evening, the group engaged with members of the Japan Seed Trade Association (JASTA), a longstanding supporter of ISHI.
On the closing day, scientists from the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO, Japan), Toyo Seikan Group Holdings (Japan), and Talenome DNA Professional (Thailand) introduced the participants to emerging technologies based on DNA microarrays for the detection of multiple pathogen targets.
The Chairs of the four ITGs, along with the Chair of the Method Validation Team (MVT), concluded the Technical Meeting by presenting their annual work plans.
We are already looking forward to hearing about the progress made and reconnecting with all ISHI members at the next ISHI Technical Meeting, scheduled to take place from 5-9 October 2026 in Montpellier, France.
For more information about ISHI, please get in touch with the ISHI Technical Managers, Ludivine Thomas and Joyce Woudenberg.#
