The National Collection of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria (NCPPB) is a bacterial culture repository hosted and maintained by Fera Science in York, United Kingdom.
The collection began in 1947 when the Lister Institute decided to stop maintaining cultures which were not relevant to human health.
These samples were combined with a collection at the Botany School of the University of Cambridge and maintained on behalf of the Agricultural Research Council.
When the initial curator and plant pathology pioneer Dr Walter John Dowson[2] retired in 1956 the collection was moved to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF), at Harpenden.
[3] The NCPPB holds samples of bacterial plant pathogens from all over the world as well as closely related organisms such as bacteriophages.