The threat of BSE in the United States and to our livestock industry is not nearly as great nor would it be as devastating as FMD.

At the present time the U.S. prohibits imports of live cattle from countries where BSE is known to exist as well as products derived from ruminants. As you know BSE does not spread from animal to animal but is believed to be spread only through improperly rendered feed containing meat and bone meal. In effected animals the BSE agent has been found only in brain tissue, the spinal cord and the retina.

One of the problems with BSE is the long incubation period of 2 to 8 years. Once clinical signs occur the process to death takes from a few weeks to 6 months. The outbreak in Great Britain is believed to have been started by feeding animal protein imported from Europe. It reached its peak in 1993. One of the problems is that BSE can only be positively identified in deceased animals and in the early onset of the disease it can be confused with other disorders such as grass tetany. In 1994 I had the opportunity to visit and travel with Dr. David Weaver, a veterinarian in England, who at that time was working exclusively with BSE cattle. It is a terrible misnomer to call BSE "mad cow disease" as it has been labeled by the press. In the dozen or so cows that I saw that tested positive to BSE, none exhibited symptoms that resembled an animal affected rabies.

The major impact and it would be substantial would be the publics reaction and the subsequent reduction in meat consumption if a case of BSE should occur in the U.S.

Foot and mouth disease is another story and has the potential to be devastating to animal agriculture. The truth is that I came away from that conference frightened to death. You might say that if I hadn't been wearing suspenders I would have had the pants scared off of me. (I guess I now know why Doc Smith wears such big suspenders.)

The FMD viruses can be spread by animals, people, trucks, materials such as dirt and manure. I remember that one out-break in Canada was caused by a dairy worker who had immigrated from Europe and had a very small amount of caked mud/manure on the sole of one of his rubber boots.

There are many separate types and sub-types of the FMD virus and immunity to one type gives no protection to an animal against other types. It's not only easily transmitted from one animal to another but also from species to species. It - the virus - can move quickly from sheep to cattle to hogs to goats to deer and to any other cloven-hooved animal.

The recent outbreak of FMD in England originated from garbage taken from an airplane from China and fed to hogs. This hog farm also had sheep (I think everyone in G.B. has sheep including the Queen.) Some of these sheep were taken to a livestock market where they were purchased by several different buyers and scattered throughout south central England. As terrible and tragic as this outbreak was it could have been worse if England hadn't had an animal identification system and the animals were traceable.

The system for control in the U.S. if an outbreak should occur is to instantly quarantine the farm/ranch where FMD is discovered. All farms and ranches that join the original farm will also be quarantined. All cloven hooved animals on the initial farm will be slaughtered immediately and all animals on the adjoining farms will be vaccinated but these animals will also be slaughtered at a later date. I believe it is to be in about 2 weeks.

Vaccination programs was a controversial subject at the symposium. A great deal of disagreement seemed to be the norm. Some South American countries use the vaccination program to contain the disease and do not destroy their animals. The problem is that sometimes the vaccinated animals may not always be differentiated from infected ones on healthy ones. It must also be remembered the FMD viruses are specific and the strain must be identified and a vaccine produced that is effective against that particular strain of virus.

Now for one of the reasons why I was glad that I was wearing suspenders and wasn't embarrassed by losing my pants. Mexico imports cattle from several of the South American countries that have FMD and uses the vaccination program to control the disease but does not slaughter their animals.

We import live cattle and meat products from Mexico and trucks are roaming almost uninspected back and forth across the border.

Reason number 2 - I was not impressed by our Federal USDA-APIS program that is suppose to protect our borders and neither were others at the conference. The state programs that are set up to act incase of an outbreak also need more funding but seem reasonably sound but the federal program is another story.

One scientist from Scotland said he would be "bloody outraged" (if he was a U.S. cattleman) at the ineptness of our protective program against FMD and the semi unregulated access of imported cattle and meat products into this country.

I can summarize what the several Ag-Economists on the program predicted if either BSE or FMD is found in this country in six words - a disaster, a disaster, a disaster.

More next month about BSE and FMD - if I don't lose my notes.

It has been said by some people that I am quite often afflicted with FIMD. That is called foot in mouth disease.