1.Member States shall annually conduct surveys for Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (Steiner et Buhrer) Nickle et al. (the pine wood nematode), hereinafter ‘PWN’, on susceptible plants, susceptible wood and bark and on the vector, and determine whether there is any evidence of the presence of PWN in their territory in areas in which PWN was previously not known to occur.
Those surveys shall consist of the collection and laboratory testing of samples of susceptible plants, susceptible wood and bark and vectors. The number of samples shall be determined in accordance with sound scientific and technical principles.
2.Member States shall communicate to the Commission a description of the surveys referred to in paragraph 1 setting out the number of survey sites, the areas to be surveyed and the number of samples to be subjected to laboratory testing each year. That description shall indicate the scientific and technical principles on which those surveys are based.
That description shall be communicated to the Commission by 1 March of the year in which the surveys are to be conducted.
3.Each Member State shall communicate the results of the surveys referred to in paragraph 1 to the Commission and to the other Member States by 1 March of the year following the year in which the surveys were conducted.