Could The U.S. Vacinate Against Foot And Mouth Into the Future?

When the United States gets a Foot and Mouth vaccine bank fully established, could livestock producers and vaccinate animals ahead of any outbreak like we do with some other diseases?

One expert says it's not an option.

Iowa State University animal health expert Dr. James Roth one reason it's not an option is a technical reason: if you declare yourself free internationally of Foot and Mouth Disease, but vaccinate for it as outlined in international animal health rules.

Countries that would import your product want to see a lot of data to prove that that virus is not circulating at a low level. So we have to do very extensive diagnostic testing to prove even though you're vaccinating there is no virus infecting the herd.

Roth added there are a lot of  hoops to jump through to export products. but there's an even more practical argument against pre-vaccinating for Foot and Mouth.

"There's 23 different strains," Dr. Roth noted.  "You'd have to use 23 different vaccines to cover all possible strains in the world."

Dr. Roth added vaccination is just not logistically or financially practical.

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