Survey finds no Dickeya in Scottish potatoes

There were no positive findings of the potato disease Dickeya during post-harvest sampling of the Scottish 2010/11 potato crop, SASA has announced.

The post-harvest tuber survey for dickeya has been completed, and all samples tested were found to be free of infection.

In total, 404 samples from 355 seed and ware potato stocks were sampled and tested.

The survey targeted stocks holding the greatest risk of carrying or becoming infected by dickeya, and included samples from non-Scottish origin seed and ware crops, irrigated stocks, stocks grown near water courses contaminated or previously contaminated with dickeya and potential close contact stocks - stocks grown on farms where there were positive findings (in ware crops grown from non-Scottish origin seed) in the summer of 2010.

In this year’s survey, all non-Scottish origin seed stocks were tested, as were all but two non-Scottish ware stocks;which could not be tested as they had been sold directly after harvest and samples were unavailable. Dickeya was not detected in any of these stocks.

“The good news is that there were no positive findings during this phase of our surveillance, but clearly we need to maintain vigilance if we are to keep dickeya out of our supply chain in future years,” says SASA head of diagnostics and analytical services, Dr Gerry Sadler.

Preparations are under way for the 2011 growing crop dickeya survey, the results of which will be released in September.

Dickeya Post Harvest Survey