Merrill Karlen, Jr., who attended yesterday's Governor's Conference on Foot and Mouth Disease and BSE, says the BQA program includes steps to protect the state's safe meat supply. The BQA program, which was developed by South Dakota beef industry groups, provides training courses for producers. Cattlemen successfully completing the course and follow-up paperwork with their veterinarian can obtain BQA certification. Currently, close to 1,000 producers have participated in the training. More than 300 are BQA certified.
Consumers become confused.
Consumers begin to think the two diseases are related. If foot and mouth disease were diagnosed, consumers would immediately think that that there is a food safety problem. That's simply not true. There is no human connection with foot and mouth. At the same time, Karlen says it is reassuring to know the Governor is taking steps to help protect the state's cattle producers from foot and mouth, a disease which has caused the destruction of cattle herds in Europe.