The average American consumes more than a half-pound of meat each day, yet the country devotes limited thought or funding to protecting its livestock from diseases that could disrupt production or infect humans, said former Sen. Joe Lieberman. During a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on “Safeguarding American Agriculture,” Lieberman said there was “an urgent need to reduce the biological risk to America’s food and agricultural sector.”
Risks include diseases that circulate in nature, such as the avian influenza epidemic of 2004-15 that killed 10 percent of the chickens that lay eggs for table use, and malicious attempts to deliberately infect livestock, said witnesses at the hearing. The president of Kansas State University, Richard Myers, a former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, pointed to the discovery during the first Gulf War of an Al Qaeda document listing 16 pathogens as potential bio-weapons. Six of them caused livestock disease and four attacked food crops.
“Policy approaches to biodefense … and agricultural security,” said Lieberman, co-chair of the privately funded Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, “have often been described as separated from one another. Despite the enormity of agriculture as a component of our economy, and despite the realistic concern of zoonoses arising, inadequate attention and funding is more severe in the animal and environmental health sectors than in public health.”
In fiscal 2017, agricultural protection amounted to less than 1 percent of requested funds for homeland security, said Lieberman. “Our panel believes that agricultural defense, while it has unique elements, should not be walled off from other biodefense efforts.”
A report by the panel recommended an integrated approach spanning federal departments to set biodefense goals and assure commensurate funding. The White House should take the lead on a national biodefense strategy, the panel said. “Agro-defense should be part of this reformed approach,” said Lieberman, noting that some experts are concerned that the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility under construction in Kansas “may not receive sufficient operational support once it is open for business.” The Blue Ribbon report also backs creation of a vaccine bank against foot-and-mouth disease, a highly contagious livestock disease.
Any agro-defense plan must include monitoring the health of wildlife and domestic pets, said Lieberman. “We lack sufficient bio-surveillance efforts to detect spillover events.”
Myers gave the committee a 13-point list of recommendations. “Bioterrorist attacks on America’s food crops and/or food animals could devastate the U.S. economy, and the global economy would not be far behind,” he said.
Zoonotic diseases can move between animals and humans. The CDC says the diseases are very common and can be spread by viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi. “Scientists estimate that more than six out of every 10 known infectious diseases in people are spread from animals, and three out of every four new or emerging infectious diseases in people are spread from animals,” says the CDC. Lyme disease, malaria, and salmonella are examples of zoonotic diseases.
To watch a video of the hearing or to read the statements of witnesses, click here.