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Potato blight tour for journalists

ITHACA, N.Y. -- "Ground zero" of late blight, the plant disease that is decimating world potato crops, is probably Toluca, Mexico. From there the disease was exported to Ireland in the 1840s and has been held accountable for the Irish potato famine that resulted in more than a million deaths.

More than 150 years later, the pathogen Phytopthora infestans continues to plague farmers around the world. While modern pesticides have been able to contain the disease for several decades, new pesticide-resistant strains of P. infestans are emerging.

EDITORS: You are invited to attend the Potato Late Blight Field Day in Toluca on Monday, Aug. 28, 2000. The field day is being sponsored by the Cornell-Eastern Europe-Mexico late blight research program and by the International Cooperative Program for Potato Late Blight, headquartered in Toluca.

Toluca is located about 60 miles southwest of Mexico City. Journalists will get a first-hand view of the disease's devastation as they tour affected potato fields, greenhouses and laboratories with agricultural scientists. The development of late-blight resistant potato plants will be explained, and testing with germplasm materials will be demonstrated. Also on view will be experiments related to forecasting late blight outbreaks and understanding the pathogen's epidemiology, as well as biotechnology research used to identify the pathogen's different strains.

Scientists from Ireland, Poland, the United States, Mexico and Canada will attend the field day, and they will be available for interviews.

For further information on this Potato Late Blight Field Day, contact Blaine Friedlander at the Cornell University News Service at (607) 255-3290, bpf2@cornell.edu .

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