Search warrants for pale cyst nematodes ordered at southeast Idaho potato farms

A federal judge has approved search warrants to take samples from fields in southeast Idaho after farmers refused to allow federal authorities to check for pale cyst nematodes. The Post Register reports (http://bit.ly/2g7d6ry) that U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale on Friday denied a motion by farmers seeking to delay the testing until a related lawsuit is settled. Some sampling was already carried out before Dale’s ruling, and additional soil samples are expected to be taken this week at the farms in Bingham County. “We’ve done what we could,” said Bill Myers, a Boise attorney representing the farmers, which include Mickelsen Farms, CVRH Farm and several others. “The court’s allowed those search warrants to go forward.” The discovery of the pale cyst nematode in Bingham and Bonneville counties in 2006 was the first detection of the pest in the United States, and several countries temporarily stopped shipment of Idaho potatoes. Japan still doesn’t allow them. More