Congress has asked for a Government Accountability Office Audit in response to USDA’s proposed rule to allow importation of fresh and frozen and live beef from Argentina and Brazil. Those two countries have regions where foot and mouth disease has been a problem. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Vice President of Government Affairs Colin Woodall says his group backs Congress in asking for that audit because they think USDA went too quickly in moving that rule forward.
Woodall is hoping having that audit will shed light on the problem and slow the rule making process in order to make the best decision possible to protect the U.S. domestic cattle herd.
Woodall says if foot and mouth disease were to get into the U.S. it would devastate the cattle industry and cause at least $ 50 billion in economic damage and stop all U.S. international trade of beef overnight
The last case of F-M-D in the U.S. was in 1929 and that came from Argentina.