As outlined in the prior two articles, a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak or an outbreak of another foreign animal disease in the U.S. will have major economic and operational impacts on livestock industries. Regardless of which species is initially infected or the location of the infection, an immediate nationwide response by the United States Department of Agriculture – Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) and state animal health officials is required.
Due to the potential for cross-species infection, mobility and survivability of the virus, and the mobility of livestock and fomites (inanimate objects that can transmit infectious organisms) in the U.S., it is highly likely that a stop movement order of all livestock and livestock products for a minimum of 72 hours will occur. This order could be extended for several weeks to allow animal health officials to determine the possible extent of the infection and limit the spread of the disease. State and federal animal health officials recognize the need to destroy the disease without destroying the livestock industry, a difficult and complicated balancing act. Producers who have taken steps to prepare their operations and livestock prior to this crisis can tip the scales in favor of surviving an outbreak.
Fortunately, the secure food supply plans developed with input from industry, state and federal health officials, and academic partners provide voluntary strategies that support control for infected premises and business continuity for uninfected operations. The secure food supply plans (Beef, Pork, Poultry, Milk and Sheep and Wool) relevant to the largest number of livestock producers in Nevada are the Secure Beef Supply Plan (https://www.securebeef.org), the Secure Sheep and Wool Supply Plan (https://securesheepwool.org), and the Secure Milk Supply Plan (https://securemilksupply.org). Included in both the beef and sheep plans are public land grazing resources directed to producers in western states where livestock grazing on federal lands is prevalent. Familiarizing yourself with these plans and guidance documents will provide the information and resources needed to develop site-specific contingency and enhanced biosecurity plans. The APHIS Foot-and-Mouth Disease Response Ready Reference Guide (APHIS Foot-and-Mouth Disease Response Ready Reference Guide) explains the APHIS disease and continuity of business responses and provides guidance on planning for an outbreak. The University of Nevada, Reno Extension Livestock Biosecurity website provides producers national and Nevada-specific biosecurity information to assist in development of both daily and enhanced biosecurity plans.
During a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in the United States, the focus of the response must be finding a balance between maintaining business continuity and the risk of spreading the virus, along with ensuring animal welfare. At the beginning of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, the highest priority is to take all measures possible to prevent disease spread and stamping out the disease as rapidly as possible to reestablish the United States as a country that is free of the disease.
This will involve setting up control areas around the infected premise(s) and permitting movement out of this area after the initial 72-hour period when all movement is shut down. Some animal movements will be needed for animal welfare, food security and business continuity. When the first case of foot-and-mouth disease is detected in the U.S., it must be assumed that there will also be undetected cases of the disease. The USDA will designate a minimum 6-mile radius around the perimeter of the outbreak premises as a control area. All livestock from infected, contact and suspect premises in the regulatory control area will be put under quarantine. No animals will be allowed to move, even after the 72-hour period of no movement, unless a producer has a state-issued movement permit. Each state will set the permit criteria. Because there would be uncertainty about the presence of potentially exposed animals, current guidance designates additional areas outside of the control area called surveillance zones, which are monitored for a minimum of 28 days to ensure no further positive cases are detected.
If an individual's livestock are outside of a designated control area or a surveillance zone, and are not infected, they will be able to move livestock without a permit. However, that livestock enterprise will still be affected economically and operationally, because the producers, packers, haulers and input suppliers deemed essential are affected in a myriad of ways both expected and unexpected. Contingency planning may well be your greatest asset when facing an outbreak. A good contingency plan will support operational biosecurity, animal well-being and herd health while minimizing economic losses. Both the Secure Beef Supply and Secure Sheep and Wool Supply Plans for continuity of business provide contingency planning considerations for producers prior to an outbreak.
Producers grazing livestock on public lands may have additional considerations unique to their grazing permits and allotments focusing on ability or inability to move livestock on or off range, feed and water requirements for animals and herders, ability to use trails or mechanical transport of animals and associated equipment and infrastructure needs, etc. All of these considerations are multiplied if animals are located inside of a control area. Brandon Depenbusch, vice president of cattle operations for Innovative Livestock Services, which has feed yards in Kansas and Nebraska, has spent the last two years developing Secure Beef Supply (SBS) Plans for each of their feed yards. He states that "an effective SBS Plan will likely be very disruptive and counter to the operational efficiencies that we strive for every day on our farms, however, animal health and not operational efficiency will rule the day during an FMD outbreak. The goal of a successful Secure Beef Supply Plan is to protect our cattle by all means possible while trying to maintain as much operational efficiency as possible."
If an individual's livestock are located outside of the designated control area and are determined to be clean of infection, they will want to be able to restart movement as soon as possible to support their business continuity. Movement into, within, or out of control area(s) will be allowed only by permit and based on the risk posed by that movement and the premises’ ability to meet permit requirements. Cattle and other livestock operations that follow the guidance in the Secure Food Supply Plans will be better prepared to request movement permits once movement restarts.
Livestock owners and managers are responsible for protecting their animals from diseases working to protect their animals’ welfare and prevent economic losses. In the first 28 days following the end of the 72-hour standstill, livestock owners and managers can protect their animals by limiting the movement of animals and associated items to only essential and low-risk movements. This would include shipping to slaughter and movements from an isolated location to another location without exposure to new animals when movement is essential for welfare purposes. This could include movements from grazing allotments and back to the home ranch. Livestock producers should avoid accepting new animals onto the ranch that could have undetected foot-and-mouth disease infections to avoid negative economic impacts on their operation.
There are steps that livestock owners and managers can take during an outbreak to reduce the potential for foot-and-mouth disease spread, to protect their animals, and to protect U.S. animal agriculture. Producers could plan to raise animals on site until they are ready for harvest. Due to feed availability and space, this may not always be possible. Livestock production operations may need to move animals to other production sites for welfare purposes. An important method to provide some assurance that the animals are free of foot-and-mouth disease is to implement the relevant Secure Food Supply Plan to facilitate the movements of animals and other materials if their uninfected premises is included in a control area. This includes:
- Having a Premises Identification Number (PIN)
- Being ready to fill out epidemiology questionnaires
- Having implemented the recommended biosecurity and surveillance in the Secure Food Supply plan.
This will facilitate business continuity but will not mean a return to business as usual. The Secure Food Supply Plans were developed so livestock producers in a control area are able to demonstrate to the unified incident command and state animal health officials that the animals are likely to be negative for foot-and-mouth disease so they can receive a permit to move out of the control area. Implementation of Secure Food Supply Plans will be effective for demonstrating to officials that animals in surveillance zones will likely be free of foot-and-mouth disease and allow for continued movements. Completing the relevant Secure Food Supply enhanced biosecurity plan proactively before a disease outbreak will help producers protect their animals from diseases. They then will be better prepared to provide evidence of that their animals are disease free, which will enhance the likelihood that they will be able to move animals.
After an outbreak, the goal is to get the United States back to free status as soon as possible, and by controlling the movement of potentially exposed and diseased animals, this can be accomplished through everyone working together to stamp out the disease. Participation in a Secure Food Supply Plan is voluntary. Having the plan guidance available and implemented, when possible, and approved by the state animal health official prior to a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak enhances coordination and communication among all stakeholders. The intent is to speed up a successful foot-and-mouth disease response and eventually enable the issuance of movement permits after the extent of the outbreak is understood. This will support continuity of business for cattle and sheep producers, transporters, packers, processors, and all livestock producers and allied industries who choose to participate.
