Journal of Bioterrorism & Biodefense
Open Access

Research Article

Economic Impacts of Potential Foot and Mouth Disease Agroterrorism in the USA: A General Equilibrium Analysis

Gbadebo Oladosu^1*, Adam Rose² and Bumsoo Lee³

¹Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA

²University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA

³University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA

*Corresponding Author:

Gbadebo Oladosu
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
E-mail: oladosuga@ornl.gov

Received Date: December 01, 2012; Accepted Date: January 02, 2013; Published Date: January 07, 2013

Citation: Oladosu G, Rose A, Lee B (2013) Economic Impacts of Potential Foot and Mouth Disease Agroterrorism in the USA: A General Equilibrium Analysis. J Bioterr Biodef S12:001. doi: 10.4172/2157-2526.S12-001

Copyright: © 2013 Oladosu G, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

The foot and mouth disease (FMD) virus has high agro-terrorism potential because it is contagious, can be easily transmitted via inanimate objects and can be spread by wind. An outbreak of FMD in developed countries results in massive slaughtering of animals (for disease control) and disruptions in meat supply chains and trade, with potentially large economic losses. Although the United States has been FMD-free since 1929, the potential of FMD as a deliberate terrorist weapon calls for estimates of the physical and economic damage that could result from an outbreak. This paper estimates the economic impacts of three alternative scenarios of potential FMD attacks using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the US economy. The three scenarios range from a small outbreak successfully contained within a state to a large multi-state attack resulting in slaughtering of 30 percent of the national livestock. Overall, the value of total output losses in our simulations range between $37 billion (0.15% of 2006 baseline economic output) and $228 billion (0.92%). Major impacts stem from the supply constraint on livestock due to massive animal slaughtering. As expected, the economic losses are heavily concentrated in agriculture and food manufacturing sectors, with losses ranging from $23 billion to $61 billion in the two industries.