Does your farm or ranch have a plan? Are you ready if there is a foreign animal disease outbreak?
The World Health Organization for Animal Health confirmed outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Germany on Jan. 10, Hungary on March 6 and Slovakia on March 21.
FMD poses no danger to humans, but it is highly contagious. It causes fever and mouth blisters in cloven-hoofed ruminants such as cattle, swine, sheep and goats, and outbreaks often lead to trade restrictions.
If the U.S. has a confirmed case of FMD, every second will matter as the industry tries to control the situation and prevent a catastrophe.
Secure food supply resources have been created by industry experts. These resources can help livestock producers develop plans for the continuity of business, movement and marketing of livestock, milk and wool in the unfortunate event of a foreign disease outbreak.
The use of electronic identification is one of the first steps to help prepare for an outbreak. However, privacy and who has access to data is a question that concerns some producers.
One option for participation is working with a third-party group such as U.S. CattleTrace. On March 13, Drovers reported the partnership between U.S. CattleTrace and Where Food Comes From — “Smart Partnership Strengthens Traceability.” The two organizations are joining forces to unify and support a voluntary traceability strategy and safeguard the beef supply chain in the event of an outbreak.
The collaboration aims to align resources and expertise, improving disease traceability while maintaining producer-driven decision-making, data privacy and data confidentiality.
U.S. CattleTrace collects four data points: animal identification, date, time and GPS location.
CattleTrace will work with any operation in the supply chain looking to facilitate the flow of data for animal disease traceability purposes. The data collected is securely locked up and only used in the case of a disease outbreak, and no other identifying data is included.
Bottom line: Knowledge and preparedness can help producers develop and put plans in place if a disease outbreak occurs. As an industry, let’s not get caught being unprepared. Now is the time to be proactive, not reactive.
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