The potential for this virus to have an impact on commercial poultry production is significant. Having said that, we have been dealing with (milder) avian influenza viruses for decades ... finding it, containing it, and eradicating it.
We're going to increase surveillance of migratory birds because we know that is a potential pathway.
What we're devising and considering now ... is consistent with international standards.
Certainly ... 40,000 (per year) would appear to be in the ballpark, but again we've not arrived at that number.
It is a likely explanation as to how this animal would have become infected.
It is our expectation that market forces are going to drive this to a mandatory program.
I would hesitate to speculate on how long that would take, because I just don't know how much follow-up and additional information might be generated when we take a look at it.
We hope that it doesn't come here. But our planning is on the assumption that it will arrive here. And we need to be prepared.
We'll want to know what feed that animal had been fed, and even more importantly what other animals were on the farm at that same time that might have consumed the same feed and where are they now?
We have all of the safeguards in place to ensure the safety of the animal and the products that might be derived from that animal.
We have worked hard...to develop a viable plan that will enable Florida to produce, harvest, process, and ship healthy citrus in the presence of citrus canker.
We can't afford for this virus to be smoldering six months before we find it.
We have the appropriate safeguards in place - overlapping, redundant safeguards - to protect public health and animal health.
We haven't done all that we can do to help affected countries attack the virus in birds.
We'll have a number of people who are familiar with aging cattle by their dentition look at this animal and see if they concur with the original veterinarian.
Was the animal was born before or after the feed ban, that's the main issue for us.
At the end of the day, the risk occurs when that animal is slaughtered.
There would be no indication at all that we have the virus in commercial poultry and therefore no substantive basis to impose trade restrictions on poultry and poultry products from the United States,
It would be our hope we will have a rule in place in six to eight months' time,
After 5 years old, it is an approximation, but a fairly good approximation, in terms of looking at the amount of wear on the teeth, are there teeth missing, that kind of thing.
This is the primary, if not the only, means which BSE is spread from animal to animal.
There's been a lot of debate about the role that migratory birds are or might play in spreading the disease.
It's one of those situations where we need to treat others as we would want them to treat us, and we have done that.
The birth herd is the likely location where the animal became infected,
The investigation today is focusing on tracing the other 73 animals that presumably came into the United States in the same shipment with this positive cow,
If the virus does arrive in the U.S., we think we'll find it quickly. We don't think that it would ever make it into the food chain.
