The U.S. livestock industry wants the USDA to start moving forward on establishing a Foot and Mouth Disease vaccine bank immediately. In the 2018 Farm Bill, $150 million was assigned for the project. National Pork Producers Council Chief Veterinarian Liz Wagstrom says this project needs attention as soon as possible. “We are extremely grateful for the funding we got in the farm bill and anxious to start building that robust vaccine bank to protect U.S. animal agriculture.” Iowa State University Veterinary Medicine Professor Jim Roth says vaccines are required to stop FMD. The bank would stock for the 23 different strains of the virus. “If we get FMD and have it for 10 years, that could be a $128 billion for pork and beef and $69 billion for corn and soybeans because there would be less demand.”
News Categories
Latest RRFN Podcasts
Subscribe to RRFN
Get a weekly digest from RRFN to stay up-to-date on all the latest news in agriculture.