Livestock groups are worried about animal disease and have asked to be included in the next farm bill. They want prevention and if needed, money for a cure.
Livestock Groups urged farm bill writers to fund a Foot-and-Mouth Disease vaccine bank in the next farm bill. They also want to increase, not cut, research funding, as the president?s proposing.
Beef, pork, and sheep groups urged the House Ag livestock panel to avert billions in losses to the pork, beef, corn and soybean industries, by investing now in an FMD vaccine bank.
National Pork Producers? Council Vice-President David Herring called it his group?s top farm bill priority. “If this country ever had a FMD outbreak it not only could devastate my farm and the whole livestock industry, but the entire U.S. economy,” Herring said. “An Iowa State University study estimated that an outbreak which would immediately shut off our meat exports would cost the U.S. pork, beef, corn and soybean sectors $200 billion over the ten years.”
Pork Producers wants USDA to contract for an offshore vaccine bank that can protect against the most common FMD strains, and a vaccine maker that can quickly produce 40-million doses. National Cattlemen wants 150-million a year for five years, for a better vaccine bank.
The groups want to protect research dollars for animal diseases, production practices, genetics, and nutrition.
The Trump budget would slash 22% of USDA?s discretionary Programs this year.
That may be an indicator of the dollars available for a farm bill in the 2019 budget.
The U.S. has not had FMD in the country since 1929. However, most developed countries have had it in the past 20 years.
FMD is considered the most infectious animal disease on the planet.
