Potato wart turns up again in P.E.I.

CHARLOTTETOWN, Prince Edward Island – Potato wart has again been found in a Prince Edward Island potato field, the Charlottetown Guardian reported Tuesday night.

The potato virus – which isn’t harmful to humans but leaves potatoes with an unsightly growth – was found in a field owned by Cavendish Farms in Freetown.

The field is about six miles from where potato wart originally was discovered in 2000.

The last find devastated the Prince Edward Island potato industry and caused serious repercussions for the provincial economy as a whole. That’s because a week after it was confirmed, the United States banned the importation of Island potatoes and demanded severe restrictions on the shipment of Prince Edward Island potatoes even within Canada.

The move virtually paralyzed the province’s multimillion-dollar potato industry and forced many Island farmers into bankruptcy.

Ivan Noonan, general manager of the Prince Edward Island Potato Board, said late Tuesday that his worst fears were true – potato wart had been found again.

However, Noonan said this year’s find should not cause the same reaction from the United States. He said that’s because a proper three-year working plan was put in place after the 2000 discovery.

But Noonan said nobody can predict what reaction the Americans will have after hearing that Prince Edward Island has potato wart again.

“I’m sure there will be those who will want to do the same thing all over again but I would hope that they learned something from the last time around,” Noonan said.

“There’s no reason whatsoever for there to be any further restrictions in place.”

Donald Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board, said Wednesday that the fact the virus was found showed that operational plans implemented two years ago in Canada to deal with potato wart are apparently working.

“We’re further ahead than we were in 2000 because we have a plan in place to deal with this,” he said. “If the plan is working, it outlines what to do if [potato wart] is found.”

He said he hoped the latest discovery of potato wart on P.E.I., and the discovery this summer of potato mop-top virus in Maine and eight other states, would be kept separate.

“It’s to the advantage of both countries,” he said. “We already have something in place with potato wart.”

He added that it’s still possible that the mop-top virus will be found in Canada, too.

Neither virus is harmful to humans, but both result in conditions that make potatoes unsuitable for table use or processing.

Don Love, regional coordinator for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, confirmed Tuesday evening that potato wart had again been found. He said a suspect potato had been found Friday, and potato wart was confirmed late Tuesday.

“We are now going to work to try to identify the potential source of this infection, trying to establish a link between this infection and the previous infection, and we will be intensifying our sampling and investigation of that area to determine how contained this particular incident is.”

Love said an operational working plan agreed to between his agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture after the 2000 find took into account the potential rediscovery of potato wart. He said if that plan is followed, Prince Edward Island potatoes should not be banned at the U.S. border.

“Scientifically, the operational work plan should cover all of the elements as long as it’s followed.”