Ruffles have ridges but they’re not supposed to have stripes.
That’s why potato-chip producers like Frito-Lay and the growers who sell taters are fretting over a somewhat mysterious crop disease known as Zebra Chip.
It’s wreaking havoc on Texas potato harvests and has cost Rio Grande Valley growers millions since it arrived in 2000.
Researchers have determined that Zebra Chip is transmitted by a small bug called the potato psyllid, but they still can’t figure out the pathogen that causes the disease. It could be a virus, a bacteria, some combination of the two, or something else altogether, they said.
Researchers have determined that Zebra Chip is transmitted by a small bug called the potato psyllid, but they still can’t figure out the pathogen that causes the disease. It could be a virus, a bacteria, some combination of the two, or something else altogether, they said.
