Zoetis wans to commercially manufacture a vaccine for the Foot and Mouth Disease Virus. R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard is alarmed that the company wants the USDA to allow them to bring the virus in so they can test it for a vaccine.
He says the USDA is holding a rule making process for this but doesn’t have the authority to allow this onto the mainland without Congressional action.
Bullard says if the FMD virus ever got loose into the U.S. it would devastate the U.S. cattle industry as well as cause damage to other areas of the economy.
Bullard notes that all prior FMD testing has been done on Plum Island off the mainland. He’s encouraging R-CALF members and everyone to submit comments to the USDA on this rule and the deadline to do so is September 14 of 2020.
