As part of the prevention actions of the tomato rugose virus, the National Agri-Food Health and Quality Service (Senasa) carried out intensive monitoring in lots of tomatoes and peppers located in the municipalities of Cecilio Echeverría, Santa Lucia and Lavalle.
During the monitoring procedure, agents from Senasa’s Corrientes-Misiones Regional Center took samples of tomato and pepper that, handled with all safety measures, were sent for analysis to the Senasa National Laboratory, in the Buenos Aires town of Martínez.
Producers were told that in the sampled lots they must take certain precautions such as: keeping the production sites where the sampling occurred in isolation and applying hygiene and disinfection measures to work tools and other elements that could act as transmitters of the virus. .
“It is very important to do this type of monitoring to evaluate the behavior of the virus, since in 2023 the presence of this disease was confirmed in the town of Lavalle,” said the programmatic reference for Plant Protection of the Corrientes-Misiones Senasa Regional Center. , Alexander Spengler.
In addition to monitoring work, Senasa agents provide information and recommendations to producers and ask them to be alert and notify the national organization of any suspicion of symptoms compatible with tomato rugose virus.
It should be noted that this disease has not been detected in the province of Misiones.
For his part, the Plant Protection coordinator of the Corrientes Misiones Regional Center of Senasa, Carlos Benzo, indicated: “These types of actions contribute to maintaining the phytosanitary status of the country and preserving the international markets to which tomatoes are exported, such as: Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay among others.”
The regional official reported that, within the framework of the care of national production against the tomato rugose virus and following new Senasa regulations, the import of tomato seeds will also be controlled with a post-entry quarantine.
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