The Biden administration’s broken immigration system and porous border policies have dangerous repercussions beyond illegals flowing into the US.
Under the watch of destructive and dishonest DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorka, the US logged over 5 million illegal aliens crossing into the country through the open southern US Border.
The Biden administration is such a complete and abject failure when it comes to immigration, House Republican Pat Fallon (R-TX) filed impeachment articles against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Now, US ranchers are warning that the highly contagious virus foot and mouth disease (FMD) could enter the US via the southern border and decimate the American cattle industry.
According to the USDA, “Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a severe and highly contagious viral disease. The FMD virus causes illness in cows, pigs, sheep, goats, deer, and other animals with divided hooves.”
They continue, “FMD causes production losses and hardships for farmers and ranchers. It also has serious impacts on livestock trade—a single detection of FMD will likely stop international trade completely for a period of time. Since the disease can spread widely and rapidly and has grave economic consequences, FMD is one of the animal diseases livestock owners dread most.”
Todd Wilkinson, a South Dakota rancher who also serves as president-elect of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), told Fox News Digital it is only a matter of time before FMD makes its way across the southern border.
“Our border is just so porous, if that disease comes in, it’s just going to devastate the industry. And frankly, I don’t know how it’s been kept out to this point,” Wilkinson said.
FMD circulates in 77 percent of the global livestock population, primarily in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, along with parts of South America. The U.S. has been free of FMD since 1929.
Customs and Border Protection has told Fox News Digital there are an average of 6,858 migrant encounters at the border every day, and Wilkinson predicted this is where FMD could enter the U.S.
“It can come in, certainly, with animals. It can also come in on a meat product. So there’s a number of ways it’s going to come in. But the most likely way it’s going to come in is some manure on the bottom of somebody’s boot,” he said.
In 2001, a FMD outbreak in the U.K. resulted in the slaughter of more than 6 million pigs, cows and sheep, according to the BBC. That outbreak had an economic impact of between $12 billion and $18 billion. In the U.S., an outbreak contained to California could cost $6 billion to $14 billion. The economic impact of a nationwide agroterrorism attack could reach $228 billion, according to the Department of Agriculture.
If FMD does end up in the U.S., there is a mandatory 72-hour pause of all cattle movement, Wilkinson said, but he predicted the pause could be up to a week.
“Just think of that — no cattle moving anywhere in the country, or going in and out of the country, for up to a week… you’re going to see the beef industry just decimated,” he said.
Speaking to a room full of ranchers at the NCBA’s annual convention, Wilkinson warned “a lot of us are going to lose our livelihood” if the disease hits the nation’s livestock.
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