FloraDecode at the Swiss Border: Identifying Regulated Plant Species in Under 4 Hours
When a shipment of ornamental plants arrived at Basel's customs post last spring, inspectors had reason to suspect the presence of a regulated species. Traditionally, that would have meant days of waiting. With FloraDecode, the answer came in an afternoon.
Every year, European border inspection posts intercept thousands of plant shipments that may carry invasive or regulated species. The challenge is always the same: traditional identification methods — morphological inspection or laboratory DNA analysis — are too slow for a customs workflow where decisions must be made the same day.
In a pilot programme conducted at a Swiss phytosanitary post, FloraDecode was deployed alongside standard inspection procedures for a six-week period. The objective was straightforward: could portable DNA analysis provide reliable species identification within the timeframe of a single inspection shift?
The protocol
Inspectors collected tissue samples from flagged plant material using the FloraDecode extraction kit. No laboratory preparation was required — the entire process, from sample collection to amplification and nanopore sequencing, was performed on-site using the portable unit. Results were automatically matched against a curated reference database covering over 40,000 plant species.
The results
Across 78 samples processed during the pilot, FloraDecode returned species-level identification in an average of 3 hours and 42 minutes. In 94% of cases, results were confirmed by subsequent laboratory analysis. Two shipments that would have been provisionally cleared under standard procedures were correctly flagged as containing regulated species — decisions that would otherwise have taken up to 12 days.
What the inspectors said
"We were sceptical at first. The idea of running DNA analysis at the border seemed unrealistic. But after the first week, it became part of our routine." — Senior phytosanitary inspector
The pilot has since been extended, and discussions are underway to integrate FloraDecode into the permanent inspection workflow at two additional border posts in Switzerland.
Key figures
- 78 samples analysed on-site
- 3h 42min average turnaround
- 94% concordance with laboratory results
- 2 regulated species identified that would have been missed
Want to explore FloraDecode for your inspection workflow? Request a demo →
