If the United States broke with African swine fever and foot and mouth disease, the cumulative impact on the pork and beef sectors over 10 years ranges from $79.5 billion for ASF alone to $231 billion for an ASF-FMD dual outbreak. According to Iowa State University Economist Dermot Hayes, losses would average between $7.5 billion (ASF scenario) and $23.1 billion (ASF-FMD scenario) per year.
“Exports would be lost and some of the product that might have gone to China would be rendered, making it very useless or losing a lot of value. But a lot of the muscle meat would end up on the…
