LITTLETON – Two months after potato wart was found in a field on Prince Edward Island, and the United States banned the import of fresh and seed potatoes from the Canadian province, the issue has turned into one of politics versus science.

“It’s highly political; highly controversial on the other side of the border,” Dave Lavway of the National Potato Council told members of the Maine Potato Board at their meeting Thursday.

During a telephone interview Friday, Maine Rep. John Baldacci said he had spoken with federal agriculture officials and they had agreed that any future decisions on the P.E.I. issue would hinge on scientific data rather than political pressure.

The only change, he said, is that U.S. officials have approved a Canadian plan to allow potatoes from P.E.I. to be transported into other provinces, but only, “under the strictest of safeguards and monitoring,” by Canadian inspectors, Baldacci said.

P.E.I. potatoes would not be allowed to enter the United States through other provinces, he said.

Lavway said Thursday that little is actually known about the disease, which causes cauliflowerlike growths to sprout from potatoes, and the spores – which are transmitted primarily in table and seed potatoes – can live for decades in soil.

Presence of the wart can destroy a state’s potato industry, which was why inspectors with the U.S. Animal Plant Health Inspection Service placed the national quarantine on potatoes from P.E.I. two months ago.

“This is not something to fool with,” continued Lavway. “It’s better to be safe than sorry with this one.”

Canadians, however, see the matter differently, with government officials pushing their counterparts in the United States to reopen the border. Some have even talked openly of retaliatory measures against the United States

Citing tests on nearly 6,000 soil samples done by the Canadian Food Inspection Service that have come up negative for potato wart, Canadian officials have been pushing hard to get the U.S border reopened to the P.E.I. product.

U.S. officials still have questions.

“There aren’t an awful lot of experts in the United States on potato wart,” said Michael Corey, the potato board’s executive director. “What the Canadians have tried to do is tell us, ‘trust us, we’ve got it eradicated.”‘

Among the concerns in the United States is that it has not been established if the strain of potato wart found in P.E.I. is the same variety found in Newfoundland 80 years ago, or if it is a new strain. Potatoes from Newfoundland are currently quarantined.

Lavway said U.S. officials have been told by Canadian agriculture experts that it could take up to a year before the strain of potato wart can be verified.

The known strain is immune to pesticides currently on the market.

“It’s been 59 days and we’ve been asked to act in lightning speed and reopen the border,” said Lavway. “We’ve reacted with lightning speed scientifically with this.”

Last week, U.S. agriculture officials agreed to open the border to P.E.I potatoes, but imposed a 100,000-acre exclusion zone from which potatoes could not enter the United States, because of the potato wart found in that area.

Last Friday, however, trucks carrying P.E.I. potatoes were stopped at the border after U.S. potato officials protested the lack of scientific data to support the change.

On Thursday, Lavway said there were again fears that the U.S. Department of Agriculture might reopen the border before enough information is available on the potato wart.

“That’s what happened last week,” he said.

Baldacci said Friday, however, a premature border reopening is not likely to occur again.

“They recognize that it did not go well last time,” the congressman said. “They’re not going to be out of step with the industry again.”

He said no decisions will be made until after next Wednesday, and they will come only after scientists in the United States have had a chance to review all the data on the potato wart problems.

Nevertheless, Lavway urged all growers in Maine to stay in touch with members of the state’s congressional delegation to make sure federal officials don’t make another move like they did last week.

“Let’s hope science prevails and a political short circuit doesn’t do something to us,” he said.