Seed potatoes from the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota have earned an international reputation for outstanding quality. Since 1995, aphid-transmitted viruses, potato leafroll virus (PLRV) and potato virus Y (PVY), have devastated the seed potato industry in this region contributing to a 40% decline in acreage entered into potato seed certification programs. The epidemiology of PLRV and PVY is closely tied to the population dynamics of the aphid vectors, their hosts and the proximity to known virus sources. Because aphid species in the vector complex vary in their transmission efficacy and their population dynamics respond differently to various host plant species, species composition of the host plant complex near seed potato lots will influence the incidence of disease. We assessed the risk to seed potato lots associated with various compositions of aphid host plant complexes. Over a three-year period (1998-2000), crop and non-crop systems adjacent to seed potato lots in the Red River Valley were classified and digitally mapped using the geographic information system ArcGIS. Levels of PLRV and PVY for each seed lot were obtained from mandatory seed certification tests for potato diseases. Correlations between crop type, associated aphid vectors and disease levels were used to develop threat indices for PLRV and PVY. This threat index was used to develop maps that predict risk to seed potato lots associated with the surrounding landscape.
Species 1: Homoptera Aphididae Myzus persicae (green peach aphid, peach-potato aphid)
Keywords: cropping system, risk
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