020335 USDA Finds No Foot-Mouth Virus in Kansas

Washington - Five cattle in Kansas tested negative for the potentially devastating foot-and-mouth disease, not seen in the United States since 1929, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Wednesday.

Reports of a possible foot-and-mouth outbreak rattled commodity markets and food company shares, like restaurant company McDonald's Corp. and pork and meat processor Smithfield Foods.

“Tests were negative for the foot-and-mouth disease virus,” Alisa Harrison, USDA spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Mouth blisters were discovered on the cattle at a livestock market in Holton, Kansas, on Tuesday, U.S. Agriculture Department spokesman Jerry Redding said. Blood, tissue and saliva samples were sent on Wednesday to a USDA animal disease laboratory in Plum Island, New York.

An outbreak of the disease in Britain last year prompted the slaughter of millions of animals, disrupted international trade, caused billions of dollars in losses to farmers and contributed to lower beef consumption.

U.S. livestock has been free of foot-and-mouth disease since 1929. Highly contagious to cattle and hogs, the disease causes blisters on the animals' mouths and feet and prompts weight loss and lameness. Foot- and-mouth disease is not harmful to humans.

The USDA said it investigated some 800 foreign animal disease cases last year.

“As expected, this was yet another false alarm,” said Chuck Lambert, chief economist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the trade group of the nation's 230,000 cattle producers.

MARKETS IN SPIN

Fears that what happened in Britain could happen in the United States sent markets into a spin on Wednesday.

Rumors that a case had broken out in Kansas first surfaced in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange cattle futures pit, prompting prices to plummet the daily trading limit of 1.50 cents a pound. Cattle for April delivery steadied by the close of trade to end 1.125 cents lower at 74.500 cents.

Prices for corn, the main cattle feed, also dropped sharply, with May corn at the Chicago Board of Trade closing 3-1/4 cents lower at $2.07-1/4 a bushel.

“It's obviously a concern for investors and consumers,” Christine McCracken, agribusiness analyst at Midwest Research said.

Shares of poultry and beef processing giant Tyson Foods Inc. were down 33 cents, or 2.6 percent, at $12.42, after falling to as low as $12 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Smithfield Foods fell 26 cents to $24.58. ConAgra Foods Inc., which owns a fresh beef and pork operation, was down 24 cents, or 1 percent, to $22.60.

McDonald's Corp., was down 45 cents, or 1.6 percent, at $27.90, after reaching as low as $27.35. Outback Steakhouse Inc. was down $1.06, or 3.1 percent, at $33.08, after reaching as low as $32.60. Hamburger chain operator Wendy's International Inc. was down 7 cents cents at $31.55 from a 52-week high earlier in the day.

“Now that it is negative, I think we should put a lot of money back in the market,” said Ann Barnhardt, analysts with Colorado-based HedgersEdge.com, a livestock and grain market research firm.

FOOT-AND-MOUTH FREE

USDA said that foot-and-mouth prevention measures in effect for decades and strengthened after Britain's outbreak last year remained successful in keeping the disease out of the United States.

“This is a very routine surveillance of livestock. We do it constantly at all livestock markets,” USDA's Redding said. “If there is anything remotely of concern, samples are sent off to the lab for analysis.”

The cattle, found in an auction barn in Holton, about 60 miles (96 km) northwest of Kansas City, had lesions in their mouths but few other symptoms of foot-and-mouth, said George Teagarden, Kansas livestock commissioner.

“Initially, we were pretty nervous. After a complete examination of the cows we believe it is probably a feed related injury,” Teagarden said in a telephone interview.

“They had no other lesions anywhere. Their temperatures were basically normal. There was no other sign of foreign animal disease at all,” he added.

High body temperatures are often associated with foot-and-mouth disease, said Teagarden.

Don Brown, a spokesman for Kansas governor Bill Graves, said that the tests on the Kansas cattle were routine.

“If you look at what states and the USDA does, this is one of thousands of routine tests that they do, and in this case, they made it very clear to us, this is not a highly suspect case that we would expect a positive. This is a case that is very non-suspect,” Brown said.

“There is not a quarantine that I'm aware of,” Brown said.

Cattle traders said earlier on Wednesday that the lack of any quarantine action in Kansas signaled the routine nature of the testing.

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