We’re starting to shed our masks, gather for in-person celebrations and travel to destinations outside our home country. Yet, memories of COVID-19’s impact on animal agriculture will remain for decades.
In the United States, some dairy producers were forced to dump milk. Yet, many grocery stores limited the amount of milk consumers could buy. Agricultural workers were deemed “essential.” Unfortunately, some agricultural workers contracted COVID-19 and could not work – forcing agricultural businesses to “pivot” and operate under unprecedented circumstances.
During the National Mastitis Council 2021 Annual Meeting, Danelle Bickett-Weddle, Center for Food Security and Public Health, Iowa State University, College of Veterinarians, Ames, Iowa, USA, said, “The lessons learned can be directly applied to the next disease challenge – animal or public health related. Contingency plans are imperative to survival in business.”
Protect milk and meat supply
Bickett-Weddle discussed two proactive programs – the Secure Milk Supply (SMS) Plan for Continuity of Business (COB) and Secure Beef Supply (SBS) Plan for COB. SMS focuses on preparing for a catastrophic event, such as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), which is highly contagious but only affects cloven-hooved animals. Milk movement may stop as a way to control spreading FMD.
For cattle with no evidence of FMD infection, SBS supports cattle movement between production phases and to market. “When COVID-19 caused market disruptions and producers were dumping wholesome milk and meat packing plants shut down, the parallels between this public health crisis and a FMD outbreak were evident,” said Bickett-Weddle. “If COVID-19 was the ‘dress rehearsal’ for FMD, what can producers do now to prepare for an animal disease outbreak?”
Bickett-Weddle gave a quick refresher regarding FMD. Also known as hoof-and-mouth disease, this disease causes blisters on the feet and in the mouth of cloven-hooved animals, including cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. Despite its devastating impact on livestock, FMD, fortunately, does not affect public health or food safety. Consumers should know that meat and milk are safe to eat and drink. “The United States has not had an FMD case since 1929, yet it is endemic in more than two-thirds of the world,” she noted.
Protect livestock movement
What will happen in the United States if FMD is detected? Bickett-Weddle explained that one strategy to control FMD spread involves stopping livestock movement (cattle, pigs, sheep and goats) and animal products (possibly milk, semen, embryos and manure).
During 2018 and 2019 national (United States) exercises, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommended a 72-hour national movement standstill after the initial diagnosis of a highly contagious foreign animal disease. According to the USDA FMD Response Plan, “A national/regional movement standstill notice does not affect movement of milk and states may choose to implement additional or alternate guidance for premises needing to move milk.” During the 72-hour standstill, additional testing and contact tracing (forward and backward) will occur to identify other infected or exposed herds/flocks. Once regulatory “Control Areas” are established around premises with infected animals, movement restrictions will remain in place for livestock operations within a 10-kilometer (6.2 miles) area. Outside the Control Areas, movement restrictions will be lifted.
What should livestock producers do? Develop farm-specific contingency plans to prepare for restricted cattle movement – and possibly milk. What time period should contingency plans cover? Plan for least three days and up to a few weeks. The “no movement” length depends on the disease outbreak’s characteristics and record availability for traceability.
Bickett-Weddle explained that once movement has stopped, restarting movement into, within or out of Control Areas will be based on movement risk and require a special permit, issued by regulatory officials, after a producer meets certain requirements. The SMS and SBS plans may be found at https://securemilksupply.org and https://securebeef.org.
A balancing act
Primarily, the SMS and SBS plans support FMD control for infected farms and business continuity for uninfected farms. “It is a tough balancing act,” Bickett-Weddle commented. FMD must be eradicated; yet, the livestock industry cannot be destroyed.
To prevent cattle from becoming infected with FMD, Bickett-Weddle made these recommendations:
- In the United States, request a National Premises Identification Number (PIN) issued by your state’s animal health official.
- Write a farm-specific enhanced biosecurity plan and implement practical actions now that safeguard animal health.
- Maintain movement records of animals, people, equipment and other items onto the farm.
- Develop contingency plans for when limited animal or product movement is enforced. Click here for contingency plan considerations.
What about FMD vaccination? This is a tool regulatory officials may use to contain and control a U.S. FMD outbreak. Vaccinating animals can control the highly contagious FMD virus. However, Bickett-Weddle said that getting enough doses and administering the vaccine to livestock can be challenging. “This must be planned for ahead of time,” she noted. “Lessons learned from the COVID-19 vaccination planning process can inform and advance the animal agriculture industry’s planning.”
Identify FMD strain
Once FMD is diagnosed, Bickett-Weddle said the next step is to identify the specific virus strain. Then, that vaccine may be requested from the North American Foot and Mouth Disease Bank and/or the National Animal Vaccine and Veterinary Countermeasures Bank.
“There are limited numbers of vaccine doses available – much less than what would be needed for a moderate to large U.S. outbreak,” she warned. “Determining priorities within a state for limited vaccine doses is important to consider ahead of time. States should evaluate their livestock numbers and work with industry to determine how limited doses may be used to best contain the virus.” Click here to learn about what factors should be considered. Furthermore, a video produced by the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security at the University of California-Davis provides some important considerations.
No matter where you live, the COVID-19 pandemic touched all of our lives. This contagious disease resulted in movement restrictions to slow virus spread and significantly impacted business continuity, including animal agriculture, across the United States and around the world.
“The importance of contingency planning, contact tracing, biosecurity to limit disease exposure, and vaccination distribution and use should be recognized and directly applied to foot-and-mouth disease planning,” Bickett-Weddle concluded. “There is no time like the present to plan for the future. Animal health and livelihoods depend on it.”
