Tariffs may be an international issue, but some warn that their impact is putting animal health in jeopardy.
The concern centers around production, with most vaccines and antibiotics made overseas. One large animal veterinarian says costs on critical imported products could go up, forcing tough decisions on the ground.
“A lot of the products, vaccines for example, aren’t necessarily manufactured here in the U.S., so they might come from China, come from India, Brazil. Well, if we’re putting tariffs on products coming into the U.S., what does that do to those products? More expensive, right? And so then, if you’re in a situation where margins are pretty small, what do you do? Maybe you cut preventative care, and so vaccines might be a place that you delay a vaccine program, or maybe you cut it all altogether, and so thinking about this animal health investment,” said Dustin Pendell with the World Organization for Animal Health.
Animal health costs are a small part of a rancher’s budget, but skipping preventative care can put herds at risk. Animal health officials admit that while tariffs might lead to short-term price hikes, it could encourage more vaccine manufacturing here in the United States.
