05/08/08 New US/Canada potato guidelines

The US Department of Agriculture and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have issued new guidelines to allow potato trade between the two counties should there be future detection of potato cyst nematode on either side of the border. Melissa O'Dell of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service says the previous field sampling technique, perimeter sampling of fields, no longer meets the agreed upon requirements. ODELL "They must be soil sampled using a full field grid pattern. Potato shipments between the two countries they must also include a phytosanitary certificate with an additional declaration confirming that seed potatoes originated from fields that were tested and found free of potato cyst nematodes." Potato cyst nematode was discovered in a small area of eastern Idaho a couple of years ago and the Canadians have a potato cyst nematode outbreak in Alberta in an area that provides seed potatoes for many US growers. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer says these revised guidelines will maintain a save movement of potatoes between the two counties while protecting against the spread of the nematodes. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott