The U.S. Department of Agriculture is strengthening safeguards designed to prevent potato wart from entering the United States through potato shipments from Prince Edward Island, Canada.

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has updated its Import Federal Order to impose additional requirements on U.S. facilities that receive bulk shipments of potatoes from Prince Edward Island for processing, packaging or repackaging, a news release from the agency said.

Potato wart, caused by the fungus Synchytrium endobioticum, is a soil-borne disease that affects cultivated potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) as well as two wild potato species. The fungus can survive in soil for more than 40 years without a host plant and there are currently no treatments available to control it.

Because the disease could cause significant economic and agricultural damage, APHIS regulates S. endobioticum as both a quarantine pest and a Select Agent.

Under the updated order, APHIS determined that controlling potato waste generated during the processing, packaging and repackaging of bulk potato shipments from Prince Edward Island will significantly reduce the risk of introducing potato wart into the United States.

U.S. facilities that receive bulk shipments from Prince Edward Island for processing, packaging or repackaging will be required to operate under a facility-specific compliance agreement. The order also prohibits facilities from using cull potatoes and potato waste as animal feed and requires the waste to be disposed of at an approved site.

APHIS is also strengthening existing import requirements following Canada’s announcement of a new potato wart infestation in May 2026.

The updated requirements will improve labeling to allow potatoes to be fully traced to both the production site and the packing shed of origin. The labeling requirements will also apply to repackaged potatoes that are not shipped in bulk.

The order further clarifies how the U.S. No. 1 grade standard must be applied to imported potatoes and strengthens certification requirements for Prince Edward Island potatoes before they are exported to the United States.

In addition, potatoes from Prince Edward Island imported for consumption may not be used as seed potatoes.

APHIS said U.S. facilities and Canadian exporters will need time to meet the new requirements. Import Federal Order DA-2026-28 will take effect Oct. 5. Until then, the current Import Federal Order, DA-2022-14, will remain in effect.

More information is available on the Potato Wart and Import Federal Orders pages of the APHIS website.