Hoof and Mouth Disease

Hoof and Mouth Disease

Susan Allen
Susan Allen
With your Land and Livestock Report on the Ag Information Network of the West, I'm Susan Allen. When I returned last month from Kenya I filled out a questionnaire upon entering US customs asking if I had been to any livestock facilities or farms. The Somalian next to me spoke little English and wanted me to fill out his form, which I refused to do. It made me wonder how much other fills out a hasty response so they can zip through customs. Plant Health Inspection Service Washington State Department of Agriculture's Mike Mike Louisell explains while it's such a concern:

"The disease that most livestock industry people would come up with that's most feared here or across the globe is foot and mouth disease. We have not had that incredibly debilitating disease in the US since 1929. But some of our foreign trading partners do occasionally have outbreaks so we have to be careful about that

Thankfully the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has a variety of other ways to continuously monitor for FMD worldwide. They station veterinarians overseas to help other countries control and eradicate the disease and APHIS also works with the U.S. Armed Forces to make sure military vehicles and equipment are properly cleaned and disinfected before their return to the United States from international

Previous ReportNew Port Contract Welcomed by Farmers and Rancher
Next ReportMonitoring System for global Swine Diseases