NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Beef producers in the United States worry about what would happen if foot-and-mouth disease was ever detected in their country.
While speaking at a forum held during the recent National Cattlemen’s Beef Association convention in Nashville, Wayne Zimmerman of Colorado wondered if such a situation would be handled quickly and effectively.
He also worried that the industry would become paralyzed while it tried to determine who was in charge.
A foot-and-mouth disease summit involving government and the agriculture industry was held in Washington, D.C., late last year to discuss plans and procedures if a serious contagious disease hit the country.
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The summit estimated an outbreak of foot-and-mouth could cost the
U.S. economy between $4 billion and $13 billion US.
“I was impressed with many aspects of the plan but I was discouraged that the country is not further ahead with a more solid plan to handle a major emergency,” Zimmerman said.
Government officials may not understand how frequently and how far cattle move across the country, spread-ing disease from state to state as they go.
“I wonder if the panel of experts truly understands the transportation process,” Zimmerman said.
The industry estimates that two to three million cattle move throughout the country each week. One auction market may sell 6,000 head in a day and load 115 trucks travelling to 10 states.
Since the outbreaks of BSE and foot-and-mouth in the United Kingdom, as well as concerns over terrorist attacks and the handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the U.S., the American government has decided firm risk management and public communications plans are needed.
Surveys have found that 70 percent of the public believes foot-and-mouth disease is a food safety issue and that it could be transmitted to them if they ate the meat.
Since foot-and-mouth is highly contagious among livestock, the summit debated whether depopulation is the only solution to eradicate it, said Paul
Ugstad, a U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian in Texas.
The U.S., Canada and Mexico have shared a vaccine bank since cases were found in South America in 2000. South American countries vaccinate and yet cases still appear, so there is no clear agreement when vaccine should be used.
The World Animal Health Organization has two classifications for foot-and-mouth disease: free of foot-and-mouth with vaccination and free of the disease without vaccines.
The U.S. government plan centres on prevention, detection, eradication, response and recovery involving a myriad of government departments.
Bob Ehart, an animal and plant health safeguarding co-ordinator with the USDA, said that includes Homeland Security because it is assumed the disease would be introduced by terrorists as a threat to food and agriculture safety.
As well, the USDA has trained six national incident management teams to deal with an animal disease emergency in co-operation with the livestock industry.
However, Ehart said states have been frustrated because the federal government keeps developing crisis and emergency strategies that some are unable to carry out.
He said a massive bureaucracy has been established at the state and federal levels to deal with emergencies. There used to be one law and one presidential directive, but these have been replaced with 10 directives and numerous laws.
Ehart said another problem is a lack of money to carry them out.
“Agriculture is recognized as a priority, but it is not funded as a priority.”
The lack of an active premise registration makes quarantines problematic.
Without identification, there is no way to know where all farms are located. Only 25 percent of farm premises have been registered as part of the larger voluntary animal identification program.
“No matter how people feel about the other activities associated with the animal identification, it is very clear if we don’t know where the premises are it is going to be more difficult, more resource intensive and time spent trying to find where animals are,” Ehart said.
