06/15/06 Potato cyst nematode traced in Idaho

Washington Ag June 15, 2006 Scientists looking for evidence of potato cyst nematode in Idaho this week confirmed the presence of the pest in one eastern Idaho field. Wayne Hoffman of the Idaho State Department of Agriculture, says the nematode was found in soil samples taken from a 45 acre farm in Bingham County south of Idaho Falls. Hoffman: "Which means we believe we have found a proverbial needle in a haystack." Hoffman says neighboring fields and fields that have used common equipment will have to be tested, but production in that area is for fresh market and processed potatoes, not seed potatoes. The discovery of the potato cyst nematode at an Idaho grading station in April was billed as the first detection of the pest in the U.S. and the question as to how the pest got in that southern Idaho field remains unanswered. The nematode can be a production problem but does not represent a health threat to consumers. More than Idaho growers were impacted by the pests discovery however. Some importing countries suspended fresh potato imports only from Idaho but Japan cut off imports of fresh spuds from the entire U.S. It was just in February of this year that producers in Washington and several other states got the okay to begin exporting some chipping potatoes to Japan. I'm Bob Hoff.