POTATO SPINDLE TUBER VIROID – RUSSIA: (AMUR)

Monday, 01 January 2024 19:49:00

Grahame Jackson posted a new submission ‘POTATO SPINDLE TUBER VIROID – RUSSIA: (AMUR)’

Submission

POTATO SPINDLE TUBER VIROID – RUSSIA: (AMUR)

ProMed 
http://www.promedmail.org

ProMED-mail is a program of the
Source: Port Amur [in Russian, machine trans., summ. Mod.DHA, edited]
https://portamur.ru/news/detail/v-priamure-vyiyavili-novyiy-dlya-regiona-kartofelnyiy-patogen//

In the Amur region, potato spindle tuber viroid has been detected, as reported by Rosselkhoznadzor [Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance]. Samples of potato tubers were sent for laboratory analysis which revealed the viroid. This “quarantine object” was discovered in the Amur region for the 1st time.

A “quarantine phytosanitary regime” was introduced in the area of 1st detection (Belogorsky district) and a “quarantine phytosanitary zone” with a total area of 275 hectares [680 acres] was established. Also, certain measures are prescribed to individual farmers who own infected potato fields.
—
Communicated by:
ProMED

[_Potato spindle tuber viroid_ (PSTVd; type member of genus _Pospiviroid_) is an important pathogen of solanaceous crops. Yield losses can be up to 65% in potato and up to 50% in tomato. Symptoms in potato may include spindly shoots; stunting of plants; severely distorted tubers (spindles); and delayed sprouting. In tomato, symptoms include leaf chlorosis and distortion; shortening of internodes; stunting of plants; and absence of flowers. Capsicum plants often display only mild symptoms. Solanaceous ornamentals and weeds are often symptomless and may serve as pathogen reservoirs for crop infections. All varieties of tomato and potato appear to be susceptible, but mild strains causing latent infections in some host cultivars exist.

PSTVd is transmitted by true seed in potato and tomato at a rate of up to 100%, depending on the host cultivar. Tomato seed is considered an international quarantine risk (ProMED post 20140122.2222560). Spread occurs also via infected plants or vegetative plant parts, pollen, mechanical means and plant-to-plant contact. PSTVd is exceptionally stable and can persist in dried sap or plant residue for considerable times. Due to the multiple potential transmission routes and the large number of host species, both epidemiology and control of PSTVd are complicated.

In Russia, PSTVd is widespread and poses problems for seed potato production (ProMED posts 20101020.3801, 20190606.6506616). A reduction in yield and quality of seed potatoes had been observed in the country since the 1980s. As PSTVd was identified to be the main cause, the pathogen has been made a national quarantine organism and is being monitored nationwide (see links below).

Pictures
PSTVd symptoms on potato:
https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/sites/gateway/files/PSTVd%20on%20Atlantic.JPG and
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0003/583842/above-ground-symptoms-of-infected-potato.jpg (compared to healthy)
PSTVd symptoms on tomato:
http://www.forestryimages.org/images/768×512/0162082.jpg and
https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/sites/gateway/files/PSTVd%20on%20Rutgers.JPG (compared to healthy)
Photo galleries of PSTVd symptoms on potato and tomato:
http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/subimages.cfm?SUB=11936 and
https://gd.eppo.int/taxon/PSTVD0/photos
Symptoms of pospiviroids on different hosts:
https://www.ipmimages.org/search/action.cfm?q=pospiviroid

Links
Information on PSTVd:
https://gd.eppo.int/taxon/PSTVD0,
https://doi.org/10.1079/cabicompendium.43659,
https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/potatoes/potato-spindle-tuber-viroid and via
http://www.apsnet.org/publications/apsnetfeatures/Pages/Viroids.aspx
Seed transmission of PSTVd (and some other viroids):
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-016-0868-z
Detection methods and quarantine risk analysis of pospiviroids:
https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2011.2330 and
https://gd.eppo.int/download/standard/258/pm9-013-1-en.pdf
PSTVd in Russia:
https://gd.eppo.int/reporting/article-616 and
https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-93-7-0752
PSTVd taxonomy via:
https://ictv.global/taxonomy
– Mod.DHA

---

Read Full Post »

USA: IPM strategies to fight the Colorado potato beetle

Entomology Today

http://entomologytoday.org/2015/06/15/ipm-strategies-to-fight-the-colorado-potato-beetle/

Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata). Photo by Scott Bauer, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bugwood.org.

By Harvey Black

As the effectiveness of the primary chemical weapon against the Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) starts to wane, new ways to manage this pest are needed where potatoes are intensively grown, according to an article in the the Journal of Integrated Pest Management.

Harvey Black

The beetle is a major problem in areas such as Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, and Maine. It attacks the foliage of the potato, thus interfering with photosynthesis and reducing energy that helps the potato grow. Both chemical and non-chemical methods can be used to deal with the pest, according to two of the authors — Anders Huseth, a postdoctoral associate at North Carolina State University and Russell Groves, a professor of entomology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Neconicotinoid insecticides have been successfully used since 1995 to fight the beetle, but their effectiveness has been waning in some areas. While resistance is increasing, Huseth notes that it may not spread to all areas where potatoes are grown. Areas where potatoes are not grown year after year on the same soil are less likely to see insecticide-resistant potato beetles.

But to ward off resistance where it may become an issue, the researchers advocate moving away from broad-spectrum pesticides toward more highly targeted ones, as well as using non-chemical methods.

The beetle “has a long and decorated history of developing resistance to most of the chemical classes that have been used against it,” Groves said.

Hence, the researchers have devised a strategy of rotating various pesticides with different modes of action over the years in order to prevent, or at least significantly delay, the development of resistance.

For example, one strategy calls for using benzoylureas — an insect growth regulator that interferes with chitin synthesis — early in the season, followed by a late-season application of spinosyn, which interferes with the nervous system. The second year would begin with an early-season application of diamide, which affects muscle contraction.

The researchers also note that non-chemical, or cultural, means can be effective as well. For example, crop rotation can, in certain cases, be effective.

As Groves explained, the beetles are tired after emerging from under the ground after winter.

“It has used a lot of its energy to simply stay alive,” he said. “The vast majority have only enough energy reserves to walk about one quarter of a mile. If a grower can move the crop up to half a mile from last year’s [planting], it can have a significant effect.”

But that may be hard to do, given the location of farms and the nearby presence of housing, according to Amanda Gevens, assistant professor of plant pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved in the research.

One solution, said Groves, is what he calls area-wide pest management, in which various growers cooperate. But, he added, the “impetus to do that has never been great.”

Another non-chemical approach is called the spring trap crop, which is essentially a decoy for the beetle. According to Huseth, a small “trap” crop can be planted two weeks before the main commercial crop is planted.

“The idea is that the foliage is up and expanding before the primary crop emerges,” he said. “When the adults have colonized that trap crop, they are in a confined spot, so the crop can be destroyed with a mechanical method like a soil chopper (a device like a lawnmower) and you’re not using any insecticide, so there is no selection pressure, but you’re managing the adults before they get into the commercial crop, lay eggs, and attack the crop.”

However, Gevens cautions that this method may only be practical for small and moderate scale growers.

“When you move to larger fields that may be 80 acres or greater, fields are more highly concentrated and the trap crops won’t work as well, given the quantity of potato and attractive plant material for the insect pests,” she said.

While non-chemical means of controlling the beetle and other pests may be helpful, pesticides “used in a judicious way” will always be a factor in growing potatoes, according to Huseth.

“Pesticides in this system are important,” he said. “Pesticides are commonly used. That’s where growers are as far as their pest-management toolbox. A rapid transition away may not be in their best interests as far a profitable crop. To that end, we wanted to provide alternative recommendations that can help them manage resistance with cultural controls.”

Read more at:

– Managing Colorado Potato Beetle Insecticide Resistance: New Tools and Strategies for the Next Decade of Pest Control in Potato

---

Harvey Black is a freelance science writer. A long-time resident of Madison, Wisconsin, he has written for numerous publications including Environmental Health Perspectives, Scientific American Mind, New Scientist, The Scientist, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Read Full Post »

New Zealand: Mesh cover to fight potato pests

FreshPlaza

Publication date: 3/23/2015

Farmer with basket of organic potatoes.

New research shows a plastic mesh cover laid over potato crops could be the answer to fighting potato pests without using chemical sprays.

Scientists at the Future Farming Centre and Lincoln University say field trials of the mesh cover is showing exciting results in controlling the tomato potato psyllid as well as reducing potato blight.

The psyllid arrived in New Zealand in 2006 and can cause severe crop loss through its bacterium.

Researchers Dr Charles Merfield said the trials over two growing seasons in Canterbury showed potatoes under the mesh covers had reduced numbers of psyllids, increased tuber size and an increase in overall yield.

He says the covers were widely used in other countries and he expected them to become popular in New Zealand.

“These mesh crop covers have been in use in Europe for probably nearly two decades now, so they’re very widely used over there for pest control, particularly amongst organic growers, so these strike me as being an ideal way of controlling psyllids on potatoes on field crops.

“We did some initial trials at the Future Farming Centre and we’ve got some very good results in terms of controlling psyllid – and we also got the surprise effect of a dramatic reduction in potato blight as well.”

Dr Merfield said the mesh could also control a wide range of pests on many different field crops and was being used by organic growers in Hawke’s Bay to control root fly on carrots.

Source: radionz.co.nz

http://www.freshplaza.com/article/137097/NZ-Mesh-cover-to-fight-potato-pests?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_medium=ed5&utm_source=s1

Read Full Post »

Potato Brown: Rot Bangladesh exported more than 100 tons of diseased potatoes to Russia

Fresh Plaza

http://www.freshplaza.com/article/121258/Bangladesh-exported-more-than-100-tons-of-diseased-potatoes-to-Russia

104 tons of ware potatoes that arrived in the seaport of Vladivostok from the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in May appeared to be infected with a dangerous quarantine disease – Potato Brown Rot (Ralstonia solanacearum).

The import of unsafe agricultural products has been banned: Rosselkhoznadzor (Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance) in Primorsky Krai and Sakhalin Region prescribed to return the infected consignment of potatoes back to the country-exporter.

The serious bacterial disease of ware potato imported into Primorsky Krai has been detected for the fourth time. The first two cases were detected in April this year when 203 tons of infected potatoes arrived in Vladivostok from India. The third case was registered at the beginning of May: 57 tons of potatoes arrived from Korea were infected with Brown Rot.

Publication date: 5/26/2014

Read Full Post »

Nebraska, USA: Ag Investigators on the Lookout for Pest in State’s Potato Seeds

NTV/NEBRASKA.TV

Posted: Apr 07, 2014 10:52 AM CDT
Updated: Apr 07, 2014 10:52 AM CDT

Investigators from the state Department of Agriculture are on the lookout for pest-ridden potato seeds in an effort to protect Nebraska’s potato industry.

Two of the state’s three potato inspectors recently quarantined nine boxes of potato seeds at a Lincoln True Value hardware store because the store’s owners didn’t have paperwork needed to prove the seeds were free of the Columbia root-knot nematode worm. The pest eats roots of plants like grasses, legumes and cereals.

Ag Department spokesperson Christin Kamm says they take seriously the need to protect Nebraska’s potato industry.

 

Read Full Post »