By TIM ALEXANDER

Illinois Correspondent

PEORIA, Ill. — Since the 2018 farm bill approved funding for a foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccination bank, why is nothing more being done to move the project forward?

That is what a panel of veterinarians and agriculture industry stakeholders gathered to ask during an Oct. 1 teleconference hosted by the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF).

“As you all know, there is currently a huge focus on African swine fever, and rightfully so, but we can’t afford to lose focus on other foreign animal disease risks, including foot-and-mouth disease,” noted Jim Monroe, a spokesperson for the NPPC and teleconference host.

“Unlike African swine fever, vaccines exist that would allow us to quickly contain and eradicate (FMD).”

Unchecked, FMD could do serious damage to U.S. agriculture and the overall economy, according to studies. The United States currently lacks enough vaccine to effectively respond to an FMD outbreak, though mandatory USDA funding included in the farm bill could be used to secure the volume required to deal with such an occurrence.

“FMD is the most important animal disease in the world,” according to James A. Roth, DVM, with Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “It is extremely contagious and could spread very rapidly with devastating consequences. In the U.S. we do not vaccinate, so all of our livestock are naive to this virus and highly susceptible.

“FMD affects all cloven-hoofed animals, including cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and deer, and is present in 96 countries in the world. We are under a constant threat that it might get into the U.S. and spread rapidly.”

The U.S. has already experienced nine instances of FMD outbreaks, but none since 1929. That year, affected animals were confined within an area and destroyed, along with all neighboring herds, to stop the threat. But herds were smaller then, with little movement compared to today’s transcontinental livestock market.

“In our modern agriculture the herds are so large, often with tens of thousands of animals, that it isn’t feasible to stamp them out to stop the virus. If you could, carcass disposal would be a huge problem. The other way to stamp out that virus is to be able to vaccinate quickly, and let the (animal’s) immune system shut it down,” Roth explained.

With 1 million pigs and 400,000-500,000 cattle transported on roads at any given time today, FMD could be spread halfway across the nation before the virus is detected at its source. Shutting down the transcontinental movement of trucks bearing livestock could result in emergency shortages of grocery staples such as pork and milk, according to Roth.

“There can be big economic impacts from FMD” as well, he added. “Losing our entire herd could have devastating consequences.”

The possible economic impact of a 10-year loss of export revenue due to a devastating FMD outbreak in the U.S. could top $128 billion for pork and beef and $69 billion for corn and soybeans – due to less feed demand – an ISU study projected.

“The 2018 farm bill does have funding provided to start building a U.S. FMD vaccine bank, and that is our best hope with FMD, is to have an adequate FMD vaccination bank,” Roth concluded.

Liz Wagstrom, DVM, chief veterinarian at the NPPC and former animal health advisor for the USDA, said the development of an FMD vaccine bank was the NPPC’s top priority regarding the latest farm bill. “We are very encouraged that USDA has now started the process of identifying potential vendors for the vaccine bank, to continue moving the process forward,” she said.

“The vaccine bank is an urgent issue that needs to be populated as quickly as possible with the appropriate strains of FMD vaccine. We are extremely grateful for the funding we received, and are extremely anxious to start building a robust vaccine bank.”

The FMD vaccine bank – or lack of – would be a big topic at the World Dairy Expo, which is where Dr. Jamie Jonker, vice president of sustainability and scientific affairs at the NMPF, was heading when he joined the teleconference.

“This is a very timely opportunity to talk about the need for modernizing a FMD vaccine bank,” he said. “Often, milk travels from a farm less than 24 hours after it comes out of a cow to a processing plant. In addition, around 15 percent of U.S. dairy production is now exported to around 100 countries around the world, a $6 billion industry.

“An outbreak of FMD would be devastating to U.S. dairy farmers and the dairy value market chain, disrupting supply in both the U.S. and export markets.”

Fully funding and modernizing the FMD vaccine bank, along with working with USDA to implement it, are among top priorities of the NMPF, Jonker added.

Sarah McKay, director of market development for the National Corn Growers Assoc., said an FMD outbreak could have an estimated $4 billion annual impact on the U.S. corn market.

“This would be disastrous on top of our current market conditions,” she said. “Pork alone accounts for 1.72 billion bushels of corn consumption, and beef and dairy accounts for another 2 billion bushels. Overall, red meat exports add 39 cents per bushel to the value of corn.”