News on Zebra Chip disease from the United States

Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists are working on a new research project to fight plant diseases transmitted by psyllid insects — particularly the zebra chip disease, which has impacted potato production for decades.

ARS Researchers studied potato tubers from the Klamath Basin in Oregon infected with the causal bacteria of zebra chip disease. They confirmed the presence of the pathogen but did not identify the sample as one of the six known varieties (haplotypes).

Idaho potato fields looked good as of early July as plants closed in over rows, signaling the tubers are preparing to grow strongly amid the hot-day, cool-night march toward harvest.

Pressure from the tiny, winged insects that spread zebra chip disease in potatoes has been light in Idaho this season, emboldening some Idaho farmers to scale back on their pesticide programs.

The Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant pathology team intentionally infected potato plants with psyllids positive with the bacterium that causes zebra chip disease, in order to identify promising germplasm in the battle against the disease plaguing the US potato industry for the past 15 years.

The potato industry may be losing a mainstay in the battle against psyllids, according to a recent Texas A&M AgriLife Research study.

Potato psyllids have been reported in specific fields in western and central North Dakota. At this point populations are not widespread.

Participants at the 25th annual Texas Potato Breeding and Variety Development Program field day learned that the harvest is underway, that psyllids are threatening unharvested fields and that new varieties are showing lots of promise.

Entomologist Ada Szczepaniec at Texas A&M AgriLife Research is addressing the concern of growing resistance of potato psyllids to the neonicotinoid classification of insecticides.

Levels of zebra chip, a crop disease in potatoes spread by potato psyllids and caused by the Liberibacter bacterium, were down signficiantly in the Pacific Northwest.

Researchers at USDA's Agricultural Research Service are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to finding new ways of managing zebra chip disease and the insect that can spread it to potato crops.

This webcast by the Plant Management Network on Potato Psyllids, responsible for the transfer of the Zebra chip disease consists of two parts:

About the same number of potato psyllids have been caught on sticky traps in Idaho fields this season as by this time last summer, but far fewer of the tiny, winged insects have tested positive for the Liberibacter bacterium, which causes the crop dise...

Volunteer potato plants growing from seed infected with zebra chip are likely too few in number and survive too briefly to contribute to the spread of the crop disease, according to new Oregon State University research findings.

Potato Psyllids Have Returned to Magic Valley, Idaho Or maybe they just never went away. Psyllids, a tiny insect that can damage potatoes, might be hardier than some people originally thought.

It appears that potato psyllids, the tiny winged insects that can spread zebra chip disease in potato fields, will overwinter in Boise, Idaho, this season, despite the city experiencing one of its coldest Januaries on record.

Idaho potato growers at a Monday meeting in Burley approved processing contracts with J.R. Simplot and McCain Foods that both include payment increases averaging 1.6 percent.

Idaho potato growers will vote Monday in Burley on contracts with McCain Foods and J.R. Simplot Co. paying a 1.6 percent average increase, according to sources involved in negotiations.