Are Are You You Foreign Foreign Animal Animal Disease Disease Outbreak Outbreak Ready? Ready? Animal health experts say it is not a matter of if, but when a foreign animal disease will impact the United States beef industry. by Barb Baylor Anderson
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oreign animal diseases (FADs) – including foot-andmouth disease (FMD), the most likely to impact beef producers – is expected to enter the United States at some point. The beef industry needs to be prepared. “FMD is the most contagious disease in ruminant animals and could be a bigger disaster than COVID-19 with humans,” says Danelle Bickett-Weddle, lead public health veterinarian for the Center for Food Security/Public Health at Iowa State University. She notes that two-thirds of countries worldwide have identified FMD within their borders. “Immediate cattle movement restrictions would affect food availability, animal welfare and producer economic viability.” USDA defines a FAD as “an important, transmissible livestock or poultry disease believed to be absent from the United States and its territories that has a potential significant health or economic impact.” For example, the 2014–15 highly pathogenic avian influenza FAD outbreak in the United States cost $850 million in indemnity payments and response activities. 22
Illinois Beef - March/April 2021
The Foreign Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Plan (FADPReP)/ National Animal Health Emergency Management System (NAHEMS) Guidelines say the economic impact of a FAD outbreak would be felt through lost international trade and disruptions in domestic trade, as well as from eradication costs that would include depopulation, indemnity, disposal and virus elimination. Additional direct and indirect costs would stem from lost production and related business and unemployment, not to mention the social and psychological toll on beef producers. Elliott Dennis, University of Nebraska Extension livestock marketing specialist, explains than an FMD outbreak in the U.S. would classify the country as “FMD-endemic.” That means U.S. beef exports could only be sent into other “FMD-endemic” countries. As it stands right now, many of the major U.S. beef export markets would be closed off since they are not FMD-endemic. “In other words, producers would lose more since FMDendemic countries would not be willing to pay premiums for
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