July 14, 2020

USDA announces purchase of FMD vaccine for animal vaccine bank

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced this month the purchasing of the first major foot-and-mouth vaccine to be stored in the National Animal Vaccine and Veterinary Countermeasures Bank following lobbying from livestock groups.

The USDA is spending US$27.1 million with animal health companies Biogenesis Bago and Boehringer Ingelheim.

In a news release, Boehringer Ingelheim said the company will provide a strategic reserve of frozen vaccine antigen concentrate that the company could quickly convert into a vaccine in the event of an outbreak.

"While we are confident we can keep foot-and-mouth disease out of the country, as we have since 1929, having access to vaccine is an important insurance policy," said Marketing and Regulatory Programs Under Secretary Greg Ibach. "Vaccines could be an important tool in the event of an incursion of the disease in the US, but their use will depend on the circumstances of the incursion and require careful coordination with the affected animal industries."

Prior to the 2018 farm bill, critics questioned whether taxpayers' money should be tapped into to fund  a preventive measure like a vaccine bank against foot-and-mouth disease. Livestock groups successfully argued that the costs are a fraction of the losses agriculture could face if not much is done to fight zoonotic diseases.

Cattle and swine groups pushed for the vaccine bank to be included in the 2014 farm bill, stressing the risks to the food supply should foot-and-mouth disease, or other infectious disease, hit livestock. USDA formed the National Animal Vaccine and Veterinary Countermeasures Bank (NAVVCB).

Last September, USDA notified companies that it was looking for information on acquiring and maintaining a foot-and-mouth disease vaccine bank.

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association and National Pork Producers Council each issued statements welcoming the funding for a foot-and-mouth disease vaccine bank.

"This is a promising first step forward to begin the work authorised in the 2018 Farm Bill; but, more action is needed to strengthen this newly created vaccine bank," said NCBA executive director of government affairs Allison Rivera. "NCBA will continue to work with USDA, Congress, and other stakeholders to secure future funding, making certain that the entire cattle industry is better prepared for a possible outbreak of FMD."

Howard Roth, president of NPPC, said the announcement reflects years of advocacy by the group to help prepare for foot-and-mouth disease. "While US pork producers and other farmers face significant challenges and uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a solution to FMD preparedness is in our grasp," Roth said.

NPPC pointed to a study from Iowa State University that an FMD outbreak would lead to potentially US$128 billion in losses over 10 years for the pork and beef sectors, as well as corn and soybean farmers.

Despite not being a threat to public health and food supply, foot-and-mouth disease could seriously disrupt export markets. USDA stated a vaccination program would control the spread of infection caused by the virus by reducing the amount of virus shed by animals and controlling the clinical signs of the disease.

USDA is funding the vaccine bank while also remaining part of the North American Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine Bank that the US shares with Canada and Mexico. The USDA stated that a US-only vaccine bank would make a "much larger number of vaccine doses available."

- Progressive Farmer