During 2016, EuroBlight collected and genotyped more than 1,600 samples of Phytophthora infestans , the cause of late blight, from 26 countries and added them to the network’s database.

As EuroBlight notes, monitoring and characterising invasive P. infestans populations is particularly important in optimising Integrated Pest Management strategies as changes in these populations “directly influence the development and deployment of resistant cultivars, the performance of disease warning systems and the efficacy of plant protection products.”

EuroBlight reports that more than 70% of 2016’s samples were of clonal lineages that have been observed in previous seasons. Some clones are widespread and have been present in Europe for more than a decade.

However, EuroBlight notes: “The spread of two new clones is cause for concern. EU_36_A2 was first sampled in the starch potato areas in Germany and the Netherlands in 2014 and again at a low frequency in the low blight pressure 2015 season. In 2016, it increased to almost 4% of the population and spread across the Netherlands into Belgium and northern France.

“A single sample of EU_37_A2 was first detected in Noordoostpolder in the Netherlands in 2013 and was sampled locally at a low frequency in the following two seasons. However, it comprised 5.5% of the population sampled in 2016, having spread as widely as England, Poland and Slovenia with a cluster of samples in northern France. Their survival and spread at a time when other clones (e.g. EU_34_A1 and EU_35_A2) have failed to establish suggests they are evolutionarily fit and may pose challenges to disease control.”

For more information:

• Read the full story on EuroBlight’s potato late blight tracking here
• Read more about EuroBlight here