Zebra Chip

Zebra Chip

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

Zebra Chip is a fairly new and serious disease plaguing the potato industry. It was first discovered in Mexico in 1994, and then found in Texas in 2000. Until recently, potato growers in the Pacific Northwest had not had to deal with the disease, but two years ago zebra chip was found in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Joe Munyaneza, research entomologist with the Yakima ARS Research Station, talks about a common misconception many people have regarding zebra chip.

MUNYANEZA: Many people think that zebra chip is just for chips. That is not correct. Zebra Chip will affect all types of potatoes, including french fries, table potatoes, you name it. So, it is a very economically devastating disease.

Munyaneza says that until 2006 scientists weren’t sure what caused zebra chip.

MUNYANEZA: A group which I was working with were able to establish an association between zebra chip and a tiny insect called the potato psyllid. At that point we didn’t know how this insect transmitted or caused zebra chip. Two years later we found out that indeed this tiny insect was transmitting a brand new bacterium called Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum, which now is confirmed to be the putative agent of zebra chip.

Symptom development of zebra chip, rolling up and stunting of the top leaves and purple discoloration, along with brown streaking of the tuber tissue, occurs quickly.

MUNYANEZA: For example, in citrus it takes about a year or more for the symptoms to show up, but in potatoes it’s just about three weeks.

Tomorrow Munyaneza will talk about how growers can control zebra chip.

I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Ag Information Network.