The National Potato Council says there’s a high probability potato wart could enter the U.S. from Canada without additional mitigation measures.
Mike Wenkel tells Brownfield about half of the production areas in the contiguous U.S., including the Midwest, have a climate suitable for the disease.
“Those states certainly could be a hotbed for wart to be found,” he says.
A ban is currently in place on all seed potatoes from Prince Edward Island, Canada after multiple detections of the fungus the last two years, but table stock potatoes are exempt.
