ABSTRACT
Agriculture represents a major sector of the U.S. economy. Agricultural exports income constitutes a significant (8 percent) percentage of income. In 2001, the value of exported U.S. agricultural products was estimated at $50 billion (National Research Council, 2003). Agriculture and the food supply are highly vulnerable, however, to naturally occurring and deliberate introductions of animal and plant pathogens. Some of these pathogens can be lethal to humans. Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a very highly contagious virus affecting cattle that is endemic worldwide, but was last seen in the United States in the outbreak of 1929. A recent estimate of an FMD outbreak in California suggested that costs could range from $8.3 billion to around $11.4 billion (Eiboir, 1999). FMD and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or Mad Cow Disease) have recently devastated the European Union’s beef industry, most notably in the United Kingdom. BSE has also appeared repeatedly in Canada and the United States in recent times, leading to costly rejections of North American beef by important global markets. Strenuous repeated diplomatic efforts by trade officials have been necessary to re-establish these markets. Plant pathogens have been given less attention than pathogens affecting livestock or humans, but present the potential to induce devastating impacts on agriculture, the food supply, and national human health. The Irish potato famine that precipitated massive immigration of Irish nationals to the United States in the mid nineteenth century and thereafter is a good example that is discussed below.1 Meat is still unavailable for routine consumption in much of the contemporary developing world, which has to rely mostly on inferior grains and root crops. These severe dietary limitations and malnourishment lead to human diseases and hamper child development. The material presented below provides considerable detail on contemporary threats to food and agriculture, through both naturalistic causation and deliberate use of such pathogens as bioterrorist weapons. This chapter also discusses some major considerations relating to past, present, and future vulnerabilities and potential impacts of bioterrorism on health, commerce, national security, and government itself. Prevention and mitigation measures are also treated.
