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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) this week announced that soil testing in Prince Edward Island has uncovered a third potato field to test positive for potato wart. The two previous positive tests in October 2021 resulted in a suspension of PEI seed potato exports to other Canadian provinces and to foreign customers, and the halt of fresh potato exports to the United States.
This week’s additional finding was part of 3,500 samples collected in PEI and tested to date. Canadian federal officials have committed to a total of 35,000 samples in order to fully understand how widespread the disease is on the island and to clear disease-free fields.
In a statement, CFIA said additional positive tests were not “unexpected,” and that find came from a farm “that does not produce table stock potatoes and does not export to Puerto Rico. No seed potatoes produced in 2021 left this grower’s facility.”
They also wrote that “CFIA is continuing to work diligently to complete testing of all soil samples collected in its ongoing PEI potato wart investigations and has plans in place for further sample collection when grounds thaw in the spring. This will include an investigation into this latest detection of potato wart.”
National Potato Council Vice President of Trade Affairs and Washington state potato grower Ted Tschirky thanked CFIA for its commitment to conducting comprehensive soil testing. “In order for potato growers and industry partners on both sides of the border to get back to regular businesses, we need certainty around where potato wart is located on PEI and which fields have been cleared as disease free. We welcome this first round of testing and hope CFIA can expeditiously conduct and test the remaining 32,500 soil samples, which will allow our fellow growers in PEI to export their potatoes to customers throughout Canada and the United States,” said Tschirky.
CFIA’s full statement can be found here.
