Biosecurity protocols reduce disease transmission

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — If an outbreak of foot and mouth disease occurs in United States, the impact could be devastating for the beef or dairy industry.

“Foot and mouth disease is still present in the world,” said Jim Lowe, associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois.

“The best model for the beef industry to look at is African swine fever,” the veterinarian said during the Cattlemen’s Education Series organized by the Illinois Beef Association. “We can use this model to reshape our management and systems strategy to mitigate the risk of FMD appearing and spreading within the U.S. industry.”

Lowe noted that AFS and FMD are very different viruses.

“FMD transmits a lot easier than AFS,” he said. “And an even bigger deal with FMD is it infects multiple species including wild animals like deer and elk which could serve as a reservoir back to our cattle populations.”

If a foreign animal disease infects U.S. herds, it will result in both direct and indirect economic impacts.

Direct effects include the income lost since a cattleman won’t have animals to sell and the increased operating costs for cleanup.

“Historically, the indemnity process has been pretty good, so the government is probably prepared to deal with that,” Lowe said.

“We’ve got the mechanisms in place for the direct cost of AFS or FMD. Unfortunately, the direct effects are quite small relative to the indirect effects,” he said. “There will probably be stop movement orders and if the feeding regions are infected and we can’t take cattle from here to there that will cause some hang-ups.”

A disease outbreak could limit marketing opportunities.

“You may not be able to do the things you want to do in terms of your marketing strategies,” Lowe said.

“The impact on supply and demand will be huge if we can’t export because we’re going to lose 20% to 30% of our total market and that puts a lot of pressure on prices in the U.S.,” he said.

There are some things cattlemen can do to prepare for a problem with a foreign animal disease.

“The swine industry has attempted to get some of these things done by registering their premises,” Lowe said. “When we move pigs to a packing plant, all the pigs come with a premise ID so we know where they came from in case of a traceback.”

In addition, Lowe said, cattlemen should consider biosecurity protocols.

“We need to understand what we’re doing with trailers and trucks and how we’re washing and disinfecting them,” he said. “We also need to consider what goes on in sale barns.”

Use Of Antibiotics

Retailers are putting pressure on the beef industry to reduce the use of antibiotics.

“The clear message we get time and time again is retailers expect animal agriculture to use fewer antibiotics,” Lowe said. “They do not expect us to remove all of them, but they want to know we’re doing things to minimize the amount of antibiotics required to produce a serving of meat.”

The simplest way to use less antibiotics is to have fewer sick cattle, Lowe said.

“When we think about disease transmission, if infected animals contact a resistant animal, there is herd immunity so we don’t get disease transmission,” he said. “When the infected animal contacts a susceptible animal, there is disease transmission.”

Lowe encourages cattlemen to use management coupled with vaccines to help cattle be more resistance to diseases.

“We need to make sure cattle are eating well, make sure cow nutrition is right so calves are robust and wean the calves appropriately so they make the transition and their immune system is robust,” he said.

Cattlemen cannot continue to do things like they have always done, Lowe said.

“We must have a customer to buy our product and there are competing sources of protein,” he said. “As beef suppliers, we need to up our game to do things to meet customer needs, so we continue to get paid a premium for the fantastic product we produce.”

Disease transmission is impacted by four factors, Lowe said.

“Think about how long it will be outside of the host because time is our friend,” he said. “Really cold temperatures or really high temperatures can minimize the chance of transmission.”

Low humidity often lowers the chance of transmission.

“But low humidity may increase respiratory virus transmission,” Lowe said. “And UV light is our friend because it tends to reduce transmission.”

Dealing with COVID-19 has been a challenge for everyone in 2020.

“We’ll work our way through these challenges, but there’ll always be more,” Lowe said. “So, we have to continue to be nimble and embrace change to make things move forward.”

A “critical step” for cattlemen is to minimize the total cost of diseases in their operation, Lowe said.

“If we don’t do it somebody else will fill the need for protein,” he said. “There will be opportunities for those who embrace change.”