While much of the animal agriculture industry scrambles to prevent African swine fever from reaching North America, a simultaneous effort continues to not allow the reintroduction of foot and mouth disease (FMD) here as well.

A coalition of industry associations and academics joined their voices to push the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to follow through with its mandate to develop a FMD vaccine bank for the U.S. herd, as funded by the 2018 farm bill.

“The time to build a...