The impact of diseases on the importation of animals and animal products.

For decades the veterinary services of the United States and other nations protected their livestock and poultry industries from the ravages of introduced animal diseases by rigorous import restrictions. This policy of zero risk frequently translated to no or reduced trade in animals and animal products or dramatic trade inequities. However, GATT articles enforced by the WTO require that imported products be treated no less favorably than domestically produced goods with regard to animal health restrictions. Under authority from the WTO, the OIE establishes recommendations and guidelines for the regulation of trade in animals and products of animal origin through the OIE International Animal Health Code, sets animal health standards, and reports global animal health situations and statuses. Diseases often have a dramatic impact on the animal agricultural industries of a nation--disease outbreaks may be deleterious to the competitiveness of the products of one nation but offer opportunities for others. The potential dangers of lax vigilance, insufficient scientifically valid data, inadequate SPS measures, and errors in assessing risk can turn the heady experience of seemingly unlimited growth in international markets and demand for one's products into a catastrophic return to reality. The experience of the United Kingdom and countries of Europe with bovine spongiform encephalopathy is a case in point. It is estimated that the cost of the outbreak of this disease to the economy of the UK has been more than $3 billion. Responses of their trading partners, including the US, to this outbreak were abrupt and restrictive. Although the decision was controversial, the US stopped importation of live cattle from the UK in the late 1980's and subsequently, in 1997, importation of all products of ruminant origin was stopped from all countries of Europe. The transmission of the disease to continental Europe and the disclosure that the pathogen was associated with a fatal human illness, rocked consumer confidence in the safety of the UK beef supply, brought down the ruling political party in the UK, and forced major changes in the beef industry.