Will Meloidogyne minor become a threat to our agriculture?

M. minor is a recently described nematode (Karssen et al, 2004) that has been found on sport fields, golf courses, and more recently also in potato growing fields in the UK and the Netherlands. A Pest Risk Analyses (PRA) was carried out in 2007, showing a lack of existing information on the damage thresholds on arable crops. Therefore, a project was started in 2008 aimed to resolve this lack of knowledge. Thus, a naturally M. minor-infested field was subjected to a variety of crops (maize, rye, annual ryegrass, potato, sugar beet, black fallow) to asses their host status and, to achieve various initial population densities (Pi) of M. minor in the soil. Subsequently, in spring 2009, two potato cultivars were planted in these plots. From these studies it is obvious that nematode were able to multiply on potatoes whereby reproduction took place within roots as well as potato tubers, respectively. This, of course, increases the risk of spreading this nematode species by seed potatoes. No substantial reproduction was present on other host plants