A single potato field at Freetown on Prince Edward Island has been confirmed to have potato wart, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Wednesday.
The potato wart fungus was confirmed through soil sample testing in the field over the past couple of weeks. The field was “in close proximity” to a field that’s already known to be wart-positive and was under surveillance since the disease was first spotted in the province seven years ago.
The fungus is a quarantine pest, known to reduce yield and ruin potatoes’ appearance, making them unmarketable, but it does not affect human health. It can be carried from field to field through soil, either on plant material or farm equipment, or on infected potatoes.
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The case came to CFIA’s attention after a farmer brought in a single potato showing symptoms of the disease. The agency “immediately” put controls in place to limit the spread of infected soil and plant parts off the field.
CFIA “has advised its major trading partners that potato wart has been confirmed,” the agency said in a release. David Cameron, acting regional director at CFIA’s Charlottetown office, told CBC before the case was confirmed that protocols now in place would prevent a repeat of October 2000, when wart was found in the province and the U.S. blocked potatoes from P.E.I. for six months.
The U.S. agreed to resume imports in April 2001 after agreeing to a CFIA-operated zone system that allows potato crops to be exported from most farmland in the province, except the area where wart has been found and fields on which the same equipment was used. Under this system, any field where wart is confirmed is taken out of potato production.
CFIA noted that compensation regulations in place since 2003 will help cover potato growers’ costs for “treatment, prohibition, restriction or disposition” due to the presence of potato wart.
Freetown is about 10 miles east of Summerside.
