The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced in a news release this week that it has completed its 2022 national survey for potato wart, and confirms that potato wart was not detected in the soil samples tested from the fields where the samples were collected.
The survey included fields in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The national survey for potato wart involved collecting and testing nearly 1,500 soil samples from seed potato fields. One criterion included in field selection was farms that had previously sourced seed potatoes from Prince Edward Island (PEI).
CFIA says this survey is an important step in the Government of Canada’s efforts to help contain and control the spread of potato wart and reassure domestic and international trading partners.
The survey results have been provided to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) and the Canadian Potato Council. Science will continue to inform the CFIA’s evidence-based decision-making in managing potato wart, the agency says.
Monitoring for potato wart across the country is an important part of mitigating risk and ensuring that current outbreaks remain contained and controlled, according to CFIA. Activities, such as the national survey for potato wart, and other ongoing investigations related to potato wart, “demonstrate the CFIA’s continuing commitment to the important potato industry”, which is the fifth-largest primary agriculture crop in Canada.
Source: Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)
Photo: Credit CFIA
