News Diseases
Potato wart found in P.E.I. field with CFIA restrictions in place

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has just posted its latest update on the investigation into potato wart on P.E.I., and it includes one detection in a field in Prince County, as reported by the CBC.

The sample is from a farm and field associated with a detection in February 2022, the CFIA told CBC News in an email. The detection was reported in April of this year.

The agency said the field is owned by a farm that produces potatoes for processing on P.E.I., and no potatoes were produced in the field in 2022.

In an email statement to CBC News, Greg Donald, general manager of the P.E.I. Potato Board, said only four positive samples have been found out of nearly 50,000 samples taken since 2021. He said all the positive samples were found in fields with CFIA restrictions in place, and in close proximity to each other.

The CFIA said the investigations should be completed by the fall of 2023 if there are no new detections. The next quarterly update is scheduled for the week of October 2, 2023.

The Potato Board said the industry is “pleased with the diligent work of the CFIA lab staff in working through the samples” and looks forward to the conclusion of this investigation in the coming weeks.

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