Potato wart worry closes border

PRESQUE ISLE – Faced with “violent” objections to allowing potentially infected potatoes from Prince Edward Island to enter the United States, the federal government reversed itself and closed the border to the Canadian spuds, local potato industry officials said Friday.

Potato wart, a long-living soil virus that renders tubers unmarketable, was found this fall in a P.E.I. field.

Earlier this week, the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service briefly lifted the restrictions after a meeting with Canadian agriculture officials in Washington D.C.

U.S. potato industry officials, however, moved quickly to lodge their objections. “We felt very uncomfortable with the science that was used to let them back in,” said Michael Corey, executive director of the Maine Potato Board.

The potato wart virus causes cauliflower-like eruptions on the potatoes, making them unmarketable. The virus is immune from any known pesticide and can survive in the soil for decades, even through bitterly cold winters. Potato-producing areas afflicted with the wart, such as Newfoundland, have become virtual biological islands, unable to export their produce. During a conference call made Friday among officials from major potato producing areas in the United States, including Maine, the National Potato Council, and APHIS, the federal agency said more work was needed before the border could be reopened.

Corey said that APHIS agreed that it had not been thorough enough nor had it consulted with leading potato wart experts on the issues.

Although up to 6,000 soil samples had been taken by Canadian agricultural officials without finding the virus in other P.E.I. fields, the U.S. federal agency didn’t know from the initial sample what type of potato wart was infecting the potatoes or where in the world it may have originated. “Those are all questions APHIS said they didn’t know the answers to,” said Corey.

U.S. Rep. John E. Baldacci said in a telephone interview that the NPC has designated three university scientists to review data and current potato-handling practices to formulate a plan.

The strategy would include industry practices in the event that the border is reopened in some fashion, the congressman said.

“There’s no indication of how long the border will be closed,” said Baldacci. “We’re going strictly by the science.”

Dr. Steven Johnson of the University of Maine will join scientists from the University of Colorado and the University of Idaho to review the data, according to the congressman.

In published reports, potato industries in Washington state and Idaho blasted the initial decision by APHIS to reopen the border. An online poll is being conducted by Potato Grower Magazine asking how the virus in P.E.I should be handled. To date, 52 percent of the respondents said that the embargo should continue through the winter and into next spring. About 37 percent said that the ban should be relaxed in December, but sampling should continue.

Prince Edward Island is Canada’s leading potato province with 108,000 acres produced by 620 growers. About 20 percent of its potatoes raised for the fresh market are exported to the United States, according to the P.E.I. Potato Board’s Web site. Calls to the potato board office were not returned Friday afternoon.