How great is the threat posed by ‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’ to Finnish potato production?

Aims:

The ‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’ bacterium has spread in Finland in carrot cultivation areas, but the extent of its spread or the location of the contaminated areas in relation to potato production is not known. Another key question is whether the bacterium is already present in Finland in seed potatoes, or potatoes in general, and how to reliably verify contamination in potatoes that do not yet exhibit any symptoms.

Keywords:

plant diseases, carrot, potato, carrot psyllid

Responsible project leader:

Nissinen, Anne, Senior Researcher, Natural Resources Institute Finland Luke

Persons at Evira responsible for the project:

Virtanen, Atro, Senior Inspector, Plant Health Unit; 
Soukanen, Mirkka, Researcher, Plant Analysis Laboratory Unit; 
Ranta, Hanna, Researcher, Plant Analysis Laboratory Unit

In cooperation with:

Natural Resources Institute Finland Luke;
University of Helsinki, Department of Agricultural Sciences

Project status:

Previous

Year of commencement:

2014

Year of completion:

2017

Project is financed by:

Funding from the Agriculture and Forestry Development Fund at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to LUKE (MTT Agrifood Research Finland), the University of Helsinki and Evira (Ref. 1842/312/2013).

Evira project code:

8267

Page last updated 10/5/2018