Nebraska U.S. Congressman Don Bacon says the foot-and-mouth disease vaccine bank could open by the end of the year. “It was my initiative to get the food-and-mouth disease vaccine bank started. It’s a three-year process and we’re in our third year and I hope this year it will be operational.”

In July, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced the initial purchase of vaccine for the National Animal Vaccine and Veterinary Countermeasures Bank.

The Republican House Ag Committee member tells Brownfield biosecurity remains a priority to protect the country’s livestock industry from other deadly diseases. “We’ve got other things like African Swine fever that we don’t have vaccines for and it would devastate this county if it found its way to North America,” he says.

Bacon says preventing foreign animal diseases like FMD and ASF from entering the US remains a priority for the House Ag Committee. 

It is highly transmissible and deadly to pigs, but it does not impact human health or food safety. 

In an interview with Brownfield, Bacon said Nebraska’s farmers and ranchers face many issues.