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Sugar disease like foot-and-mouth

- 12 October 2001
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12 October 2001



Sugar disease ‘like foot-and-mouth’

By FWi staff


THE discovery of a devastating disease in a prime sugar-beet growing area has been likened to the start of the foot-and-mouth crisis.


Rhizomania, which causes massive reductions in the sugar content of affected roots, was confirmed on a farm near Sleaford, Lincolnshire.


Geoff Hotchkin, National Farmers Union sugar-beet delegate for Lincolnshire, said the disease posed a massive threat to the industry.


“In many ways it is like foot-and-mouth. Its an economic disease and has big implications for a lot of farmers and a great part of the industry.”


The Lincolnshire outbreak is significant because the area is a prime beet-growing region. Previously rhizomania was found mainly in East Anglia.


Cases of the disease, whose name means “root madness”, have now risen to 65 this year – almost double the previous record.


Growers are being advised to be extra-vigilant.


Precautions will be in force at Beet UK 2001, the countrys premier sugar-beet event near Kings Lynn on Wednesday (17 October).


Organiser British Sugar said it would urge visitors to observe restrictions and ensure that vehicles and footwear are clean.


The surge in outbreaks has thrown into question the future of the UKs disease-free status, which will be reviewed next March.


Maintaining disease-free status could be untenable, said Tony Guthrie, industrial crops manager for Advanta, which breeds resistant varieties.


He added: “The disease is really accelerating now.”


Restrictions limiting tolerant varieties to infected or high-risk farms should be reviewed in parts of East Anglia where rhizomania is virtually endemic.


“It is possible to continue growing beet in these areas, but we need a change of policy to do that,” said Mr Gurthrie.

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