Crackdown On A Virus

International travelers coming into J.F.K. Airport in New York City last week had to take care not to step on the beagles. Agents of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the dogs were busy sniffing incoming luggage for signs of meat or other farm products. Any such goods that were found were seized, and any passengers who admitted that they were on or around a farm during their travels in Europe were asked to allow a disinfecting solution to be applied to their shoes or any other item that may have touched the ground.

The customs crackdown was part of the USDA's effort to keep the U.S. free of a decidedly unwelcome international visitor: foot-and-mouth disease. Last month the explosively infectious livestock illness began breaking out on farms around Britain. Last week more cases traced to the British infection turned up across the Channel in France. When that happened, the already beleaguered European meat market took another hit: the USDA banned the importation of meat and meat products from the 15-nation European Union (E.U.). Other countries, including Australia and Canada, soon did the same. The U.S. and Canadian bans alone could cost Europe $372 million a year.

The U.S. move has been met with general approval at home and--surprisingly--in Europe as well. Foot-and-mouth has already led to the slaughter and incineration of 180,000 pigs, sheep and cows in Britain, with 100,000 more marked for destruction. On the day that the U.S. banned European meat, import doors also slammed shut within the European community. Belgium, Portugal, Spain and Germany banned French meat, and German border police began checking all incoming trucks transporting meat. Consumers on both sides of the Atlantic, who want their meat products on the shelves but would like them free of pathogens, thank you, are generally in favor of whatever it takes to keep the disease in check. "Because this virus spreads very fast, and because of its grave consequences," says Alfonzo Torres, a USDA deputy administrator, "it's one of the livestock diseases we dread most."

Foot-and-mouth comes by its fearsome reputation rightly. There are seven types of viruses that cause the disease, and 60 subtypes. While foot-and-mouth virtually never affects humans--though they can be carriers--animals develop painful lesions of the hooves and mouth, leading to weight loss, falling milk production and spontaneous abortion. As many as 90% survive, but their robustness never returns, and they become useless commercially. So easily does the disease spread--through air and soil and even on the shoes of farmers and the tires of their trucks--that just 10 viral particles could, experts say, render all U.S. cattle unsuitable for export.

To protect U.S. herds--and the financial well-being of 2.1 million U.S. farms--the USDA took dramatic steps. More than 1,800 inspectors are stationed in 90 ports of entry around the country. Anyone violating customs rules is subject to a $1,000 fine. "Each day, 250,000 travelers enter the U.S.," says Craig Reed, a USDA administrator. "Any of them could bring a disease that could devastate our agricultural economy."

Compared with policing tourists, policing meat imports is relatively easy. For all the seeming sweep of the new restrictions, there is simply not that much to restrict. With beef from the U.K. already banned because of mad-cow disease, the hardest-hit imports will be pork and goat, mostly from the Netherlands and Denmark. Such cooked and cured meats as canned hams, prepared sausages and prosciutto are not affected because heating or processing kills the foot-and-mouth virus. Certain dairy products like yogurt, Brie and hard cheeses are also exempt, since they are already subject to strict manufacturing conditions, including pasteurization.

While Europe's internal embargoes are, by some measures, stricter than the USDA's, some in the European community detect a whiff of protectionism in Washington's moves. David Byrne, E.U. health commissioner, called the new regulations "excessive and unnecessary." The French newspaper Le Figaro groused that the world is "divided between contaminated countries and those barricading themselves behind drastic health and commercial barriers." The French government, however, has remained tellingly quiet. And in Germany, the media voiced full-throated approval of the new restrictions. "Animals are being dragged through the whole world in huge numbers," wrote the daily Tagesspiel. "This cannot go on."

However the debate plays out, it is unlikely to have an impact on U.S. policy. Partly by vigorous policing, Americans have dodged the mad-cow bullet, and officials aren't inclined to take foot-and-mouth less seriously. "Inspectors make up the first line of defense," says Richard Dunkle, a USDA administrator. It is a line they're determined to keep unbreached.