Yet the company has petitioned for a deregulation process by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, including a period for public comment, which began this week.

ECONOMIST: A tale of high-tech contamination in the bins of Arkansas

Its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service had long regulated the importation and interstate movement of plants and plant products that are pests, which were defined by means of an inclusive list.

FORBES: Back To The Future: Let's Reverse 25 Years Of Flawed Agbiotech Regulation

For more than 20 years, U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has imposed excessive and hugely expensive field test design and other burdens for plants crafted with gene-splicing, the most precise and predictable techniques of biotechnology.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Genetic markers for the bacterium were sent to America and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed in July that the same form of Candidatus had been found in potatoes from two fields in Texas that were exhibiting zebra-chip symptoms.

ECONOMIST: Plant disease

"I would hesitate to speculate on how long that would take, because I just don't know how much follow-up and additional information might be generated when we take a look at it, " said Dr. Ron DeHaven, deputy administrator of animal, plant and health inspection services for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

CNN: Canada nears end of mad cow probe