The National Pork Producers Council applauded the introduction of similar animal health legislation in the U.S. House and Senate to fund U.S. Department of Agriculture measures and programs that help prevent, prepare for, and respond to foreign animal diseases.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman presented similar legislative language in his committee’s budget reconciliation package.
This comes on the heels of the arrests of two Chinese Nationals for trying to smuggle a harmful fungus into the United States. The fungus, Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon.
This noxious fungus causes “head blight,” a disease of wheat, barley, maize, and rice, and is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year. Fusarium graminearum’s toxins cause vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock.
Here's John Jenkinson with today's Ag Minute.