Early disease detection essential | The $200,000 machine means the province will no longer have to send clubroot samples to Edmonton
New testing equipment at the province’s crop protection laboratory in Regina will help Saskatchewan stay on top of clubroot disease.
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing equipment uses DNA segments to diagnose plant disease. It will allow staff to detect clubroot DNA in soil samples.
Provincial agriculture minister Lyle Stewart and industry officials received a first-hand look at the equipment last week.
The province paid the lion’s share of the more than $200,000 cost. SaskCanola, SaskFlax and the Saskatchewan Mustard Development Commission together contributed $29,000.
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Stewart said the new equipment means that samples from Saskatchewan will no longer have to go to Edmonton for testing.
SaskCanola director Brett Halstead said early detection provides early warning and helps prevent the spread of the yield-limiting disease, which has devastated some parts of Alberta.
Clubroot is a real threat to the industry, he said.
Stewart said he has been concerned about clubroot for years and wants to make sure the province keeps it under control.
“Canola is too big a part of our agricultural industry and provincial economy to allow that to happen,” he said. “Thankfully, Saskatchewan has been fortunate with only four confirmed cases of clubroot to date. That does not mean we can breathe a sigh of relief.”
The province declared clubroot a pest in 2009 and established its clubroot prevention initiative.
Educating producers and others who go onto fields with equipment has been key to keeping the disease in check.
Halstead said best management practices include washing equipment that is purchased elsewhere, following good rotations and using clubroot resistant varieties.
Workers who take equipment from field to field, such as those in the energy and power utility industries, also need to be aware that they should wash equipment, he said.
“It probably even takes up to 20 years to completely get rid of it,” he noted of clubroot’s stubbornness.
One of the four cases found in Saskatchewan wasn’t in a field where canola had recently been grown, but the pathogen was found in the soil.
Halstead said that highlights how the disease can spread and the vigilance needed to keep it under control.
The crop protection lab is focusing on using its new equipment for clubroot, but will also use it to detect other diseases such as fusarium head blight and aster yellows.
It is the only facility in Saskatchewan with broad diagnostic services for plant health, insects, weed control and herbicide resistance screening.
