12/14/07 USDA tracing potato seed from Alberta to Washington

Washington Ag December 14, 2007 The U.S closed its borders to seed potatoes from the Canadian province of Alberta last month after Canada reported it had found the pest golden nematode in two fields there. Larry Hawkins of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service says now there are additional concerns as seed potato shipments from Canada carrying the golden nematode may have found there way into fields in eight major potato producing states including Washington. Hawkins: "That means there is potential risk to those states and USDA now is tracing shipments to those states in the hopes that they can trace them all the way to the field level and conduct testing to see if in fact there is a problem." U.S. officials are concerned that discovery of golden nematode in any of the eight states could lead to some countries banning imports of U.S. potatoes. Alberta has traditionally supplied about 30 percent of Washington's seed potato needs. The Washington Asparagus Commission says Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell helped defeat an amendment to the Farm Bill this week that would have stripped funding for the Asparagus Market Loss Program. The 15-million dollars would compensate U.S. growers for losses caused by the Andean Trade Preferences Act and other trade agreements. I'm Bob Hoff.