US FOOD SUPPLY REMAINS VULNERABLE TO TERRORISTS

More to be Done

The General Accountability Office (GAO), in a recent report, says too few border inspections of imported food and limited access to vaccines is keeping the U.S. food supply vulnerable to terrorist attack. The report warns while much has been done, more needs to be implemented.

Since USDA passed border inspections to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2002, inspections have fallen from nearly 41 million in 2002, to 37.5 million last year. DHS said a lack of inspectors is partially to blame for the drop, and said it intends to hire an additional 500 inspectors within 12 months.

Of equal concern is the intentional introduction of animal and poultry diseases. While most of the impact would be economic, there are additional concerns about such diseases as avian influenza which have human health consequences. The greatest concern is introduction of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), which if introduced into the U.S. herd would cost about $5 billion.

USDA was urged to come up with a cost/benefit analysis of stockpiling animal vaccines and evaluate rapid diagnostic tests for use at the site of an outbreak, while training veterinarians to recognize foreign animal diseases.