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Zebra chip research gets $3.9 million in funding
Texas Texas AgriLife Research plant pathologist Dr. Charlie Rush of Amarillo has watched the concern over zebra chip of potato grow in the past five years, both among researchers and those willing to fund the research. Now Rush is leading a team of 20 researchers and Extension specialists in a $3.9 million federally funded Specialty Crop Research Initiative titled, "Management of Zebra Chip to Enhance Profitability and Sustainability of U.S. Potato Production." This U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture-sponsored initiative is a continuation grant over a five-year period, he said. Only the first three years in funding is provided initially, with the potential for more after a three-year review. The grant requires matching funds by growers and industry through in-kind contributions and cash. "Texas researchers are taking the lead," he said. "Amarillo has taken the key leadership position in this national program. We are addressing the needs of our local clientele, but also those of the industry nationwide." Zebra chip was first detected in the lower Rio Grande Valley in 2000 and was initially known as the "Texas defect," Rush said. The new threat to U.S. potato production has now been detected as far north as Nebraska and west to California. The rapid spread of the disease in an industry that produces about 320 million tons of potatoes worldwide got attention, he said. The U.S. averages 17.7 millions tons of potatoes a year, with a value of $3.2 billion. All market classes of potatoes are susceptible to the disease with no resistance at this time, Rush said. While it is not a health concern to the consumer, it is a quality issue for producers who lose money on potatoes infected with the disease. The disease causes simple sugars to remain in the potato instead of turning to starch and when the potato is fried, those sugars caramelize and cause dark stripes and a slightly off-taste, he said. That is a major problem for Texas, Rush said, where 70 percent of the production from 20,000 acres in the Panhandle, South Plains and Rio Grande Valley is headed to Frito Lay to be made into potato chips. Initially, the disease was handled internally by growers and Frito Lay, but from 2000 to 2004 the incidence and distribution of the disease increased and resulted in heavy losses to Texas potato growers, he said. "When a producer harvests potatoes, they do a fry test," Rush said. "If the total defects are below 10 percent, then they are accepted. But much over that and the company may refuse the potatoes and send them back at the grower's expense. Then, instead of getting the going market price, the grower gets a reduced price at another type of processor." Epidemics in 2005 and 2006 resulted in multimillion dollar losses, and aid was solicited from Texas government and national commodity organizations, Rush said. In 2007, the Texas legislature approved $2 million for establishment of a Zebra Chip Research Initiative for the 2008-2009 biennium. This initiative is handled through the Texas Department of Agriculture and passed through to AgriLife Research units in Amarillo, Lubbock, College Station, Weslaco and elsewhere. The state zebra chip initiative focused on etiology, epidemiology and disease control/pest management, Rush said. It was discovered in 2008 that the potato psyllid was the vector for the bacterial pathogen which causes the disease. "There are insecticides that are effective against psyllids, but we don't know very much about the ecology of the potato psyllid, such as when and where they migrate from, where they over-winter, when is the optimum time to treat and with how much," he said. "Also, growers need management practices that will help reduce populations." Under the USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture sponsored Specialty Crop Research Initiative, Rush will bring together team members from six universities and the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service. Scientists represent six states: California, Idaho, Nebraska, North Dakota, Texas and Washington. This group's goal is to reduce losses from zebra chip to economically sustainable levels by development of a comprehensive environmentally responsible disease-management program, Rush said. The priority or focus areas are: detection, vector/pathogen diversity and disease etiology; epidemiology; pest management; breeding; economics; risk assessment/disease forecasting; and technology transfer, he said. Rush said the project is designed to produce: a set of best management practices for producers; a risk assessment/disease forecasting model; germplasm with demonstrated tolerance to zebra chip; economic models with cost/benefit analysis; Extension publications, demonstration trials, educational and training programs dealing with all aspects of the disease; and scientific data that will be useful to regulatory agencies in development of pest risk assessments for zebra chip. The zebra chip research group will have its first meeting during the Citrus Huanglongbing and Potato Zebra Chip Conference: Status of Diseases and Research Opportunities scheduled Nov. 16-18 at the McAllen Conventional Center in McAllen.
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