Animal Disease Preparation
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. Animal disease preparedness is a ‘must’ for the next farm bill according to livestock industry leaders.
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association head Todd Wilkinson says, recent history is proof that animal disease outbreaks like mad cow and foot and mouth disease, avian influenza, and, overseas, African swine fever can devastate livestock …
WILKINSON … “The U.S. must be prepared to deal with disasters like a foot and mouth disease outbreak, as economic consequences would be in the tens of billions of dollars. We simply cannot afford to do nothing. In this case, an ounce of prevention is truly worth more than a pound of cure, and NCBA calls on Congress to robustly fund ‘the three-legged stool.”
Made up of a national vaccine bank preparedness program, and an animal health lab network. National Pork Producers President Scott Hays …
HAYS … “The three-legged stool of animal health that was laid out in the 2018 Farm Bill has set the course for what pork producers need in the upcoming farm bill. The outbreak of foreign animal disease would devastate not just hog farmers, but also cattle, sheep, and feed grain producers and result in the loss of thousands of jobs to disruptions in domestic production and the loss of export markets.”
Hays says African swine fever, now as close as Haiti and the
Dominican Republic, is a growing threat, and U.S. producers need tools to prevent or respond to an outbreak.
