CHARLOTTETOWN, Prince Edward Island – Farmers on Prince Edward Island want Canadian officials to pressure the United States to implement massive soil-testing programs for the potato mop-top virus.

The testing, monitoring and quarantine programs for the virus – which damages potatoes but isn’t harmful to humans – would be similar to those undertaken on the island last summer to allay American fears about the potato wart fungus.

“What comes around goes around,” Canadian official Wayne Easter said Saturday.

More than 11,000 soil samples have been taken of Prince Edward Island fields since the discovery of a patch of potato wart fungus in a field two years ago.

The discovery led the United States to close its borders to potatoes from Prince Edward Island for several months. The closure cost island farmers millions of dollars, and they accused U.S. officials of using the virus as an excuse for protectionism.

This summer, the mop-top virus has been discovered in 11 states, including Maine, and has resulted in restrictions on U.S. exports to Canada.

Danny Hendricken, district director for the National Farmers Union on Prince Edward Island, said the potato mop-top virus can potentially be far more devastating to the North American potato industry than potato wart fungus.

Easter said he is writing a letter to federal Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief this week calling for rigid implementation of whatever measures are necessary to block the shipment of all potatoes across the Canadian border.

Hendricken and Easter said the United States must take firm action, including the same massive soil-testing protocol forced on Islanders, to prevent mop-top’s spread.

“They shouldn’t be allowed to sell potatoes for seed, table stock or even for processing,” Hendricken said. Mop-top “could be the ruin of an entire industry.”

The mop-top virus produces rings of discoloration inside the potatoes, making them unmarketable.

The virus can survive for more than 10 years in contaminated fields.

It gets its name because the aboveground portion of infected potatoes has an unruly appearance like the mop-top hairdo.