New infested acreage has been added to Idaho's pale cyst nematode program.

Officials with Idaho’s pale cyst nematode eradication program say they’ve discovered three more infested fields totaling 994 acres since October, including two fields that had previously been deregulated from the program.

Tina Gresham, PCN program coordinator with USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said infestations in a 77-acre field and a 140-acre field were detected as part of a cooperative monitoring effort by APHIS and the Idaho State Department of Agriculture.

She said those deregulated fields were reinspected using more precise soil-testing methods that are now standard practice in the program. Gresham said PCN was also found in a 150-acre field that had been under regulation since 2012 due to associations with known infested fields.

Gresham said the program released 2,094 acres under regulation for associations with infested fields on Dec. 29, following a sequence of surveys with negative laboratory tests for PCN.

With the changes, the program now regulates 7,734 acres, including 26 infested fields encompassing 2,897 acres.