News on Zebra Chip disease

Potatoes New Zealand chief executive Champak Mehta says the industry now has the potato psyllid well under control thanks to the knowledge gained through research.

During a quarantine survey on Norfolk Island, a small island between New Zealand and Australia, both the tomato-potato psyllid (Bactericera cockerelli) as well as the zebra chip causing bacterium Ca. Liberibacter solanacearum (Lso) have been detected.

Levels of zebra chip, a crop disease in potatoes spread by potato psyllids and caused by the Liberibacter bacterium, were down signficiantly in the Pacific Northwest.

New Zealand Potato production in 2013, at 525,000 metric tons, was marginally (5%) ahead of 2012 production. t is likely planted areas in 2014 will be similar to 2013, with production in the range of 500,000 to 550,000MT.

Australia’s industry association of vegetable and potato growers, AUSVEG, has welcomed the announcement by the Federal Minister for Agriculture that the Federal Government will review the current process by which biosecurity threats are assessed.

Researchers at USDA's Agricultural Research Service are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to finding new ways of managing zebra chip disease and the insect that can spread it to potato crops.

Claims New Zealand potatoes do not pose a “substantive risk” to the Australian industry have been slammed as irresponsible and reckless by AUSVEG.

New research has been funded through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, to help the potato industry reduce issues caused by an insect intruder – the tomato-potato psyllid.

This webcast by the Plant Management Network on Potato Psyllids, responsible for the transfer of the Zebra chip disease consists of two parts:

About the same number of potato psyllids have been caught on sticky traps in Idaho fields this season as by this time last summer, but far fewer of the tiny, winged insects have tested positive for the Liberibacter bacterium, which causes the crop dise...

Volunteer potato plants growing from seed infected with zebra chip are likely too few in number and survive too briefly to contribute to the spread of the crop disease, according to new Oregon State University research findings.

Potato Psyllids Have Returned to Magic Valley, Idaho Or maybe they just never went away. Psyllids, a tiny insect that can damage potatoes, might be hardier than some people originally thought.

A simple mesh cover could be the answer to halting New Zealand's most devastating tomato and potato pests, the tomato potato psyllid.

Las mariquitas podrían ser la clave para la salvación de un insecto transmisor de una bacteria para la industria de la papa de Nueva Zelanda.

It appears that potato psyllids, the tiny winged insects that can spread zebra chip disease in potato fields, will overwinter in Boise, Idaho, this season, despite the city experiencing one of its coldest Januaries on record.

Research conducted by the Bio-Protection Research Centre at Lincoln University, using the southern ladybird as a biological control agent, has shown the predator to be voracious and effective at reducing tomato-potato psyllid (TPP) numbers.

Idaho potato growers at a Monday meeting in Burley approved processing contracts with J.R. Simplot and McCain Foods that both include payment increases averaging 1.6 percent.

Idaho potato growers will vote Monday in Burley on contracts with McCain Foods and J.R. Simplot Co. paying a 1.6 percent average increase, according to sources involved in negotiations.