The U.S. Department of Agriculture is worried that seed potato shipments from Canada to eight states might have been carrying a microscopic, wormlike pest that attacks potato plants.
The department has banned additional shipments into the U.S. and plans to search for the golden potato cyst nematode in fields in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, California, North Dakota, Colorado, Maine and Nebraska.
U.S. officials are concerned that discovery of the golden nematode in any of the eight states could lead to some countries banning U.S. potatoes, which happened in 2006 with the discovery of the similar pale potato cyst nematode in Idaho.
