PEI testing potatoes for wart

October 16, 2007
A virus that crippled Prince Edward Island's potato industry for six months in 2000 may have returned.

A single spud from a quarantined processing field near Kensington is being tested for potato wart, a disease that poses no threat to humans but leaves huge galls on the tuber, affecting it's marketability.

However, this time Island growers and Canadian food inspection officials are confident protocols they've worked out with their U.S. counterparts will prevent a border closure like the one that occurred seven years ago.