News on Zebra Chip disease

Plant Biosecurity CRC scientists have identified stable regions in the genome of Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum (CLso), which causes the serious disease Zebra Chip in potato and tomato crops. This research will provide new diagnostics that will significantly reduce uncertainty in biosecurity assessments.

Pressure from the tiny, winged insects that spread zebra chip disease in potatoes has been light in Idaho this season, emboldening some Idaho farmers to scale back on their pesticide programs.

Despite the fact that the bacteria responsible for zebra chip disease occur in the Mediterranean and cause damage in leek and onions, the risk for transfer to potatoes is low, because of the feeding preferences of the transmitting psyllids in this area.

Alan Parker looked out onto the farm business he had spent his entire life establishing. The West Australian seed potato grower will know in the next six weeks whether his lifelong career will continue.

Potato Psyllids, a destructive plant pest found for the first time in Australia in February cannot be eradicated, so the industry will seek to manage it, rather than destroy it, according to The Department of Food and Agriculture of West Australia.

The Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant pathology team intentionally infected potato plants with psyllids positive with the bacterium that causes zebra chip disease, in order to identify promising germplasm in the battle against the disease plaguing the US potato industry for the past 15 years.

The potato industry may be losing a mainstay in the battle against psyllids, according to a recent Texas A&M AgriLife Research study.

In New Zealand, a team of Lincoln University researchers is impressed with the results from a trial of a mesh cover that is used to protect potato crops from insect pests.

Potato producers in south-west Western Australia say the detection of the potato psyllid (Bactericera cockerelli) is a "serious blow" to their industry. The detection of the psyllid may put national and international exports in jeopardy.

Potatoes New Zealand became the 14th partner organisation to join the Government Industry Agreement for Biosecurity Readiness and Response.

Potato psyllids have been reported in specific fields in western and central North Dakota. At this point populations are not widespread.

Participants at the 25th annual Texas Potato Breeding and Variety Development Program field day learned that the harvest is underway, that psyllids are threatening unharvested fields and that new varieties are showing lots of promise.

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) of New Zealand has approved a type of parasitic wasp as a biological control agent to combat the tomato potato psyllid (a plant louse), which attacks tomatoes, potatoes, capsicums and tamarillos in the country.

Entomologist Ada Szczepaniec at Texas A&M AgriLife Research is addressing the concern of growing resistance of potato psyllids to the neonicotinoid classification of insecticides.

Australian Researchers are working closely with the country's potato industry to investigate the potential for the highly destructive Tomato-potato psyllid (TPP) to enter Australia using natural pathways.

El Ministerio de Agricultura anunció que la importación de papa para industria procedente de los Estados Unidos se podría reabrir proximamente debido a la aplicación de protocolos fitosanitarios para minimizar el riesgo de introducción de la plaga “Zebra chip”.

Costa Rica's Servicio Fitosanitario del Estado (SFE) has informed USDA's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) that it will begin issuing import permits for US chipping potatoes beginning February 1, 2016.

Australian horticulture researcher and industry stalwart Dr Kevin Clayton-Greene has been honoured with a prestigious Industry Recognition Award at the 9th World Potato Congress in Beijing, China.