After an appeal from the National Potato Council, the USDA has placed quarantine on fresh or seed potatoes from Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Because the NPC didn't feel comfortable with an established border sampling of 300 tubers out of any fresh shipment and 600 out of any seed shipment for the newly found potato wart virus, the USDA agreed and took the action.
Deputy Administrator Richard Dunkle made the quarantine effective immediately and in place until further notice.
It comes on the hills of the recent discovery in a PEI potato field of the wart virus. The USDA/APHIS sent a team to the area to investigate the fungal find. At that time the USDA stipulated that shipments of potatoes from PEI move through one border crossing in Maine.
The virus is a tough one to control, remaining in the soil up to 30 years. It first moved from South America to Europe. How it appeared in Canada is till a mystery.