Powdery scab is a widespread and serious disease problem of potato crops throughout Europe, caused by the protozoan organism Spongospora subterranea f.sp. subterranea. Control of the disease is problematic and a sustainable strategy for disease management is urgently needed. An initiative was founded to bring together a network of scientists and technicians of multidisciplinary expertise from across Europa in a workshop.
The European Powdery Scab Workshop was held over three days (July 20-22, 2000) at the Scottish Agricultural College, Craibstone Estate, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, Scotland. Scientists, agronomists and technical personnel having expertise in many disciplines, including Biology, Plant Pathology, Mycology, Epidemiology, Virology, Breeding and Agronomy were brought together from seven European countries and from Australia. For each country, they presented reports on 'National potato production', 'Present control measurements', 'Disease assessment and seed testing' and 'Past and current research' providing the knowledge necessary to develop an integrated approach towards a sustainable control strategy for powdery scab. In plenary discussions components of an integrated control approach were recognised and missing knowledge and potential for collaborative research were identified. It was decided that there were several areas of research required, that collaboration between partners attending the meeting was suitable and that the skills of these participants were sufficient to cover many of these areas. Following the workshop, additional relevant partners have been sought and the project proposal is on target for submission to the EU.
Existing approaches of disease assessment and seed testing were evaluated, suggestions for common guidelines discussed, and optimal standards are outlined in the workshop proceedings. These guidelines have now been adopted by participants in an effort to promote standard working practices.
Proceedings of the workshop were submitted by all participants to the edtiors. These proceedings have been printed and disseminated to participants, farmers, extension service workers, inspection authorities and scientists and are also available on the Spongospora web page:
http://www.pa.ipw.agrl.ethz.ch/spongospora/EUworkshop/proceedings.html.
