A U.S. group of ranchers opposes the manufacture of a foot and mouth disease vaccine on the U.S. mainland. Bill Bullard with R-CALF USA says the USDA has no authority to approve a request from Zoetis. “Here we have a multinational pharmaceutical company that wants to begin making vaccines from a live foot and mouth disease virus, and they want to do it in College Station, Texas. We argue that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has no authority whatsoever to grant that petition.”
The Zoetis petition argues that their live FMD virus has been genetically modified to render it incapable of causing FMD infection in livestock.
