Another BRR Finding Made In UK

Another finding of potato ring rot has been confirmed at a farm in Lincolnshire, England. The farm has been included in the investigation to identify the source and extent of infection associated with a recent ring rot outbreak in Herefordshire.

The Lincolnshire farm received Sante seed for planting in 2003 from one of the same Dutch stocks supplied to the farm in Herefordshire. Farm-saved seed was retained from the 2003 harvested crop and replanted in 2004. Ring rot has been detected in the 2004 crop.

The seed supplied to the Herefordshire and Lincolnshire farms was derived from a Sante stock with a clonal link in the year 2000 to a stock implicated in a 2004 ring rot finding in the Netherlands.

The results of sampling and testing from other farms involved with the second phase of the investigation into the Herefordshire outbreak, involving the 2004 crop, have been negative to date. Some stocks remain to be harvested and tested.

As well as the Lincolnshire farm, the program is focusing on the outbreak farm in Herefordshire and farms in Norfolk, Newcastle and Suffolk.

While investigations in both the UK and the Netherlands are still in progresss, this finding increases the likelihood that the Sante seed received from the Netherlands in 2003 were a factor in the Herefordshire outbreak, as well as the Lincolnshire outbreak.