Press Releases
July 17, 2008
Protect U.S. Beef From Imported Foot & Mouth, Conrad says
Senator Endorses Ban on Argentine Beef, Citing Safety Concerns
Washington – Bipartisan legislation that would ban all Argentine livestock and meat from entering the United States because of potential Foot and Mouth Disease was introduced today by Senator Kent Conrad, who said allowing the potentially diseased beef would threaten the safety of the U.S. beef herd and put our food supply at risk.
“Few things are as important as protecting our nation’s food supply,” Senator Conrad said. “This legislation would take important steps toward protecting our nation’s beef, as well as protecting North Dakota’s and the nation’s family ranchers.”
Senator Conrad said the bill would ban the importation of all cattle, pigs and fresh and frozen meat from Argentina until the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture verifies that each region of the South American country is free of Foot and Mouth Disease. The bipartisan legislation directly addresses a U.S. Department of Agriculture plan to import meat from a select region of Argentina, despite the country’s well-documented Foot and Mouth cases.
Highly contagious, Foot and Mouth Disease is a sometimes fatal viral disease found mainly in cattle. While the disease poses little health risk for humans, it can have a devastating impact on the cattle industry. The USDA estimates that the economic costs of an outbreak in the U.S. could range from $40 billion to $47 billion over a 15-year period.
Senator Conrad was joined by Senators Tim Johnson (D-SD), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Jon Tester (D-MT), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Ken Salazar (D-CO) Pete Domenici (R-NM), Wayne Allard (R-CO), John Thune (R-SD), Mike Enzi (R-WY) and John Barrasso (R-WY) in introducing the bill.
In February of 2006 there was a Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in the Northern Region of Argentina. As a result, more than thirty countries closed their borders, either partially or totally, to beef from Argentina, the third-largest beef exporter in the world. U.S. cattle exports could be similarly affected if infected cattle from Argentina caused an outbreak in this country.
Foot and Mouth Disease is widely considered to be the most economically devastating of all livestock diseases. In 2001, an outbreak in England led to the destruction of six million animals at a cost of nearly $20 billion.
