St. Paul, Minnesota
June 18, 2007
While many may be familiar with
potato late blight, the plant disease responsible for widespread
potato shortages, the lesser known potato wart has the potential
to be as devastating to economies that depend on potato
production, say plant pathologists with
The American Phytopathological
Society (APS).
According to Gary Franc, plant pathologist with the College of
Agriculture, Plant Sciences Department at the University of
Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, potato wart is a serious disease of
cultivated potato that has been detected worldwide. Potato wart
is caused by the fungus Synchytrium endobioticum, which is
considered to be the most important worldwide quarantine plant
pathogen of potato. While not harmful to humans, the disease
causes unsightly growths that initially appear white, and then
turn brown or black as they decay, rendering the potato tuber
unrecognizable and inedible.
There is a zero tolerance for the fungus that causes potato
wart. As a result, this disease has been placed on the USDA’s
“Select Agent List” of plant pathogens deemed to pose a severe
threat to plant health or to plant products. Although direct
losses from potato wart may be insignificant when first
detected, indirect economic losses resulting from zero-tolerance
regulations for potato wart can be devastating to growers.
Indirect economic losses become especially evident in potato
production areas that are subject to quarantine measures, as
well as when the movement of commercial potatoes is restricted.
Spores released from infected plants can make soil unsuitable
for potato production for decades. The long-term survival of
fungal spores and the lack of suitable chemical controls for
potato wart suppression make this disease especially problematic
for any type of cultivated potato production, including small
garden plots and subsistence farming to extensive land areas
economically dependent on commercial production of potatoes for
consumption or for potato seed production.
“Potato wart is much easier to prevent than it is to control,”
Franc said. “It is highly critical that we prevent the
introduction of the potato wart pathogen to production areas,
and, where it is already introduced, to limit its spread,” he
said.
“While regulatory action is important in potato wart management,
it is essential that research efforts continue with the goal of
developing and improving reliable and integrated disease
suppression methods to directly deal with this disease,” said
Franc.
More information on potato wart is available on the APS website
at
www.apsnet.org/online/feature/potato. This article is the
first in a series on plant diseases included on USDA's Select
Agent List.
APS is a non-profit, professional scientific organization.
The research of the organization’s 5,000 worldwide members
advances the understanding of the science of plant pathology and
its application to plant health. |
|
