Clubroot disease spreads in Canada's canola

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, - Wet conditions have helped spread the most-feared disease affecting canola crops in the western Canadian province of Alberta, a government official said on Tuesday.

* 66 new cases found, more than last year

* Resistant crops limiting severity

A survey of 341 fields by the University of Alberta has found 66 new cases of clubroot, a disease that prevents the canola plant's roots from taking in nutrients and water and can stay in the soil for up to 20 years.

More than 500 Alberta fields are now infested with clubroot. Last year, Alberta found about 50 more fields with the crop disease.

"Certainly it's a disease that's not going away," Alberta oilseed specialist Murray Hartman said in an interview posted on the Alberta Canola Producers Commission website.

Fields that farmers seeded to clubroot-resistant varieties, however, show much less severe damage, he said. Seed companies Pioneer Hi-Bred, owned by DuPont (DD.N), and Monsanto (MON.N) have clubroot-resistant varieties on the market.

"That's the good news part of it (that) as these resistant varieties become more commonplace, it should put kind of a governor (limit) on this disease and how fast it is spreading," Hartman said.

Canada is the world's top exporter of canola, which is crushed for its oil used in cooking, and for its meal, which is added to livestock feed.

Clubroot has ravaged European crops for centuries and was first detected in 2003 in Alberta, the main Canadian province affected by the disease.

Researchers in the top crop-growing province of Saskatchewan found the pathogen that causes clubroot in 2008, but have not found the disease itself, said Clint Jurke, an
agronomy specialist for the Canola Council of Canada.

There has been one canola field in Manitoba confirmed with clubroot, but symptoms were not severe and the disease has not reappeared there.

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source: reuters

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