News on Potato Defects and Diseases from Europe

Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) has issued a temporary import ban on potatoes from neighboring Ukraine.

In Northern Ireland, the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute and CAFRE, Greenmount Campus has issued the first potato blight warning for 2014.

In the United Kingdom, many potato crops are now emerging well - straight into conditions that pose a high risk of blight.

Scientists at the Basque agricultural research Institute Neiker-Tecnalia have for the first time identified the existence in Álava-Araba of the two sexual types A1 and A2 of the fungus Phytophthora infestans and warn the crossing between both types could lead to the appearance of new, more aggressive strains resistant to routine phytosanitary teatments

Europatat welcomes the European Parliament plenary vote on plant health that results in more responsibilities for operators and a common sense on trade

El cruzamiento entre ambos tipos producen variantes más resistentes a fungicidas convencionales y puede sobrevivir en condiciones adversas.

In België is op een afvalhoop met aardappelen phytophthora geconstateerd.

Agrocabildo, el servicio masivo de difusión de tecnología agraria de Tenerife, acaba de publicar los resultados de un estudio realizado para determinar cuál crucífera es la más efectiva en el control del nematodo dorado de la papa.

El número de diferentes tipos de plagas que destruyen las cosechas en el mundo en desarrollo podría ser muy superior a lo que se conoce, lo que estaría contribuyendo aún más a mermar las cosechas en países que son grandes productores de alimentos, dicen investigadores.

Russia will start importing Dutch seed potatoes again, once a quality inspection has deemed them suitable. This could mean a 10 million euro export opportunity for companies.

Fitopatólogos de la universidad holandesa de Wageningen han descubierto un mecanismo que aumenta la resistencia a Phytophthora infestans, patógeno causante de una de las enfermedades más devastadoras de la papa, el tizón tardío.

At the 2014 Fruit Logistica event, being held in Berlin from 5-7 February, DuPont Food Chain Manager for the EMEA region, Mr Luigi Coffano, highlighted the challenges faced by a world population that is growing by 150,000 people every day.

Avoid bruising at potato harvest by managing moisture levels pre-desiccation is the advice from Hutchinsons Root Crop Technical manager, Darryl Shailes.

The Guatemalan potato moth is wreaking havoc in potato crops in Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. Control measures exist, but are toxic or financially out of reach. Now there's a promising alternative: a biopesticide based on a virus that infects the moth.

Insort and EVK have signed a worldwide license agreement with Key Technology for use of Chemical Imaging Technology in proven Key solutions provided to the potato industry.

The UK government has stepped up its efforts to control the potato disease ring rot.

An international team of scientists reveals that a unique strain of potato blight they call HERB-1 triggered the Irish potato famine of the mid-nineteenth century

This week , the potato variety Sarpo Mira was named Plant of the week in the British Newspaper "The Guardian"