FREE ESSAY ON FOOT MOUTH DISEASE

FOOT MOUTH DISEASE

Foot and Mouth Disease, its effects in the restaurant industry
Any time there is an out brake of any number of diseases at the production level of
livestock it causes great concern in the industry and the implications are far reaching
indeed. On the heels of the European Unions out break of Mad Cow Disease they now face
Foot and Mouth Disease, what does this have to do with the American restaurant industry?
Everything. First is the all important issue of containment this can be accomplished by
bans on all pork and pork ruminants products from the EU and by assigning an additional
150 inspectors at critical ports of entry. The simple advent of the out break of FMD
reduces the supply of pork and pork products available which in turn raises the price for
the buyer, the restaurant and then the price of the meal you eat at the restaurant, or if
you want to take it another way, people will not want to eat pork or pork products
because they are fearful of FMD which lowers the demand for pork and then the producers
have the raise prices to cover the cost of production. Second, the fact that this country
has been free of FMD since 1929 would mean the possibility of a very fast moving FMD in
this country given our very large livestock and poultry production facilities and could
cause vast amounts of damage, in England at the height of its MCD there was a mass cattle
kill of 500 million, could you imagine if FMD got into this country and went unchecked
for just a week? FMD is of great concern to livestock owners because it spreads widely
and rapidly. Third, prices at restaurants may go up to cover the expense that may be
incurred from no one eating pork or pork products that may have been ordered using
forecasting.