News brief:
As chronic wasting disease and avian influenza spread among wildlife and livestock in the Mountain West, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is targeting new funding at efforts to keep these and other deadly diseases in check.
About $12 million is being made available for state, tribal and local governments to control chronic wasting disease – an always-fatal disease among ungulates like deer and elk that's hitting herds across much of the Mountain West.
The USDA is also allocating $16 million in farm bill funding to protect animal health in agriculture. Much of the focus is on diseases like avian influenza, African swine fever and foot and mouth disease, according to Jenny Lester Moffitt, the USDA's undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs.
“We always want to keep these foreign animal diseases out of our country, and these new tools that Congress has given us have enhanced our efforts,” Moffitt said during a recent congressional hearing. “We are better prepared to detect, to respond [to] and to eliminate foreign animal diseases because of them.”
Some money from the farm bill will be allocated to federal agencies, but specific funding will also go to the Idaho and Colorado departments of agriculture to focus on initiatives in those states.
Avian flu is a global concern right now as the world sees its worst-ever outbreak. The virus has spread to other mammals, including in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, though Moffitt said the current strain poses a low risk to humans.
“We know how to respond quickly so producers can get back to producing food,” she said.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, KUNC in Colorado, KUNM in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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