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A new, aggressive strain of late blight (Phytophthora infestans), the fungus
that caused the Irish potato famine in the 1840s, is devastating potatoes and
tomatoes throughout the US and eastern Canada, warn scientists in the US.
William Fry at Cornell University in New York State and Stephen Goodwin at
Purdue University in Indiana say the strain, called US-8, is resistant to
metalaxyl, the fungicide most commonly used to treat late blight. In Plant
Disease (vol 81, p 1349), they claim that US-8 is now so dominant and widespread
that controlling it will be “very difficult”.