Livestock producers in the United States should continue to be aware of the threat of foot-and-mouth disease and take precautions that can reduce threats. Although the disease has not been detected in the U.S. since 1929 it remains a concern.
Earlier this month the Ministry of Agriculture in Brazil announced that the country expects to be declared FMD free, with vaccination in 2018.
Responding to the announcement, Brazil’s Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply Blairo Maggi said, “It is the crowning of 60 years of work for Brazil to be free of foot-and-mouth disease, with vaccination. He went on, “In 2018, Brazil will be recognized as a country free of foot-and-mouth disease, with vaccination by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). In the sequence, we already have a program in which Brazil will be declared free of foot-and-mouth disease without vaccination.”
The announcement is not a huge concern for the U.S. since meat from Brazil is already banned due to other sanitary and quality concerns raised last summer. Still, FMD is enough of a concern that the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and 99 other organizations have deemed funding of a FMD vaccine bank a high priority in the 2018 Farm Bill.
USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Public Affairs Specialist Donna Karlsons told WLJ, “APHIS is always encouraged when countries make progress in their FMD control and eradication programs. As you know, when disease is eradicated, the health of animals improves and that’s always a step in the right direction.”
Referring to a story on www.GlobalMeatnews.com, Karlsons said, “The article suggests that OIE will recognize a few additional states as free with vaccination. Brazil already has a few states with that status, so this potential action is not surprising and would not affect cattle health in the U.S.”
WLJ also questioned R.W. Trewyn, Ph.D., liaison at the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility (NBAF) at Kansas State University about the impact the change of status could have on the United States. Trewyn responded, “Eradication anywhere is a really good thing, but there are still too many countries where FMD is found. Thus, there is still a risk of it getting here, so cause for concern. It could happen accidentally via the normal movement of people and goods globally or it could be delivered intentionally by terrorists. So, the U.S. must remain vigilant.”
Asked if the FMD vaccine would be stored in Kansas, Trewyn said, “I believe the foreign animal disease (FAD) vaccine/antigen bank will be housed at NBAF when the facility becomes operational in 2022/2023. The problem with any FAD hitting the U.S. is it will likely be spread far and wide by the time it’s diagnosed, just based on the number of livestock being shipped somewhere each and every day. Disease symptoms don’t show up immediately, so it’s unlikely the disease will be contained in one location which makes eradication difficult.”
Trewyn, while acknowledging he is not a veterinarian so vaccine details are not in his wheelhouse, pointed to recent a Senate ag committee hearing where the need to have an adequate vaccine supply was brought to light. In that hearing, “Safeguarding American agriculture in a globalized world,” R.D. Meckes, DVM, state veterinarian at the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, told the committee, “Of greatest concern to state animal health officials is the absence of vaccine for use in response to the introduction of a foreign animal disease.”
Meckes went on to say that in the event of an FMD outbreak in the U.S. the North American Foot-and-mouth disease Vaccine Bank would be “triggered.” He explained that the vaccine bank is a shared resource with the U.S., Canada and Mexico and quantities of the antigen would only yield enough vaccine (2.5 million doses of any type/subtype0 to respond to a small, confined outbreak.
“The size, structure, efficiency and extensive movement that is inherent to the nation’s livestock industry will present unprecedented challenges in the event of an FMD outbreak,” Meckes said. He also noted that “An FMD outbreak in a livestock-dense area of the U.S. cannot be controlled without immediate access to millions of doses of FMD vaccine. Currently, availability of that amount of vaccine would require weeks to months to produce depending on the type/subtype of virus.”
NCBA’s Veterinarian, Kathy Simmons, and Director of International Trade and Market Access Kent Bacus, relayed through Max Moncaster, ?associate director, policy communications, that because of current restrictions on beef from Brazil entering the U.S., unrelated to FMD, the change in status should not be an immediate concern. Likewise, the change is not likely to impact competition with the U.S. export market for beef. — Rae Price, WLJ editor
