The United States has not recorded a case of foot-and-mouth disease in nearly 90 years. The livestock industry, pharmaceutical companies and the government “would not be ready to handle an outbreak of the disease if it were to hit,” says DTN. The United States does not have an adequate stockpile of vaccine against the disease and, with its huge herds, could not kill livestock quickly enough to prevent an outbreak from spreading, according to testimony at a House Agriculture subcommittee hearing. FMD is not a human health threat. It can kill young animal. Mature animals can recover but still be infectious. “Groups such as the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and National Pork Producers Council urged Congress to invest more in stockpiling the vaccine for FMD,” said DTN. “Howard Hill, a veterinarian and former president of the National Pork Producers Council … noted that a vaccine strategy would be both less costly and more humane to implement.”