We all know Democratic President Joe Biden’s open border policies are disastrous for the American people. But it’s not just humans who are at risk anymore. As a growing number of ranchers warn, our livestock is about to be decimated.
As Fox News reports, livestock ranchers throughout the United States are more and more concerned that the lack of security at our borders will bring in diseases that cause massive danger to animals, people, and the industries our society relies on for food.
Todd Wilkinson is one such rancher, as well as the president-elect of the National Cattleman’s Beef Association. As such, it’s his job to constantly be on the lookout for diseases like foot and mouth, which are fairly common among cattle, pigs, sheep, and pretty much all other cloven-hooved animals.
And as he told Fox News, with the way things are around the border, it’s only a matter of time before this, and other diseases find their way into the US.
“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.”
To understand better, foot and mouth is a disease that quite regularly circulates throughout about 77 percent of the world’s livestock populations. Mostly, outbreaks are seen in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and parts of South America.
Thanks to the United States’ strict meat and livestock industry regulations, it’s been kept out of our country since 1929.
But as the border continually allows people from all over the world to cross into our communities and lands, those like Wilkinson know that it’s not so much a matter of if but when.
He explained that there are a number of ways such a disease can make its way across our border. Obviously, someone could cart a goat or pig across that’s infected with it. Similarly, an infected meat product could be brought over.
However, the most common or likely way it could soon become a full-on outbreak is simply by someone tracking infected manure on the bottom of their shoes. Anyone could do it without even knowing.
And should that happen, the repercussions would be disastrous.
First of all, it would require a mandatory quarantine or pause in cattle movement for at least 72 hours. While this may not seem like a lot of time, in reality, it could add up to a whole week of not being to move or transport any livestock to or from anywhere in the entire country.
Naturally, any and all animals found to be infected would have to be culled from the herd (in other words, killed.)
Now, as Wilkinson explains, they’d like to put certain measures in place that would more easily allow them to track how, when, and where such diseases make their way in so as to limit the amount of quarantining if at all possible.
But it could still be disastrous.
Just how bad could it be?
To answer that, the best way is to look at countries that have experienced such an outbreak before.
According to Fox, Britain had such an experience back in 2001. In total, about 6 million cows, pigs, and sheep ended up being slaughtered prematurely. It cost the nation between $12 billion and $18 billion.
Now, remember that Britain is much, much smaller than the United States. As the Department of Agriculture has noted, a similar outbreak in just California could cost the US about as much, between $6 billion and $14 billion.
If the whole country were to be shut down and such, the total cost could quite easily reach somewhere around $228 billion.
Let’s just say that with ongoing supply chain issues and an economy that is already struggling, the whole thing could set us back years.
And yet, it seems that Biden or those in his corner haven’t even thought about this threat, let alone prepared for it. At this point, we’re skating on prayers alone.
