b"Edging Back to NormalAfter a year of upheaval following a potato wart discovery, P.E.I. has worked hard to regain their spud status.BY: ASHLEY ROBINSONMORE THAN A year after potato wart was discovered in a processing potato field on Prince Edward Island and spud exports from the Island to the United States were halted, life is returning normal, but not everything is status quo just yet. Seed growers on the Island are still unable to export their spuds while an investigation into the discovery is ongoing.We didn't agree with what happened, we still don't to this day. The border reopened and I think what it did do is solidify that the things that our industry are doing, and our regulators CFIA is doing, were acceptable, Greg Donald, general manager of the P.E.I. Potato Board, says in a phone interview.To stop the spread of potato wart when discovered in Canada, the Potato Wart Domestic Long-Term Management Plan is executed. The plan was developed by the Canadian Food Inspecting Agency (CFIA) and accepted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It was made after the first P.E.I. potato wart discovery in 2000Greg Donald, general manager of the Prince Edward Island Potato Boardand has been revised since.According to the plan, whenbeen an additional detection or two inunder specified conditions that would Synchytrium endobioticum, the fungusthose cases, and then there's never beenpose little risk of introducing potato wart that causes potato wart, is discovered inany since. So, the surveillance activitiesinto the U.S.a field, the CFIA quarantines the field.work Donald says. The border reopening was due in part Contract tracing is then done to determineOn Oct. 1 and 14, 2021 Synchytriumto a pathways analysis report compiled by what farm equipment was used in theendobioticum was discovered in twothe USDA. The report showed a baseline field and where else that equipment hasdifferent P.E.I. commercial potato fieldssummary of the pathogen and pathways been used. The seed sources for the fieldby the CFIA Charlottetown Laboratory.for spread if only minimal mitigation are also investigated. The fields were already under CFIAmeasures are in placewith minimal From there, other contacts are reviewedsurveillance due to association withmitigation measures, the potential for such as adjacent fields. The CFIA willearlier investigations. After this discovery,spread is high.do soil samples in the discovery field,the Potato Wart Domestic Long-TermThere's never been any additional with more being done in adjacent fieldsManagement Plan was immediately put indetections with a tremendous amount of and other contact fields. Fields whereplace and seed exports to the U.S. weresoil sampling, surveillance of regulated Synchytrium endobioticum are detectedsuspended on Nov. 21, 2021. fields, and they continue to monitor to are monitored for 20 years or more afterOn March 24, 2022, the USDAmake sure that it didn't (have additional initial discovery. announced exports of P.E.I. fresh potatoesdetections). There's one cluster and it's Over the last couple of decades, there'sto the U.S. could resume. At the time, athe one that had the detections. And it's been like four clusters, and three of themstatement was released which stated thatwithin the same farm entity, Donald were discovered, detected, and then thethe USDA had determined P.E.I. freshexplains, adding the detections were plan kicks into place. There might havepotatoes could be exported to the U.S.found on a processing potato farm.18SPUDSMART.COM Winter 2023"