Foot and Mouth Disease: A Systemic Failure Endangering Food Security and the Formal Economy
The Lebanese Private Sector Network, as an independent private-sector advocacy and accountability platform, expresses grave concern over the spread of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) among cattle in several Lebanese regions.
Beyond the immediate animal health impact, this outbreak raises serious questions about systemic failure in prevention, regulation, and oversight - failures that now directly endanger national food security, essential protein supply, farmer livelihoods, and the formal agricultural economy.
A Preventable Crisis: What Failed?
Foot and Mouth Disease is one of the most well-known, closely monitored, and preventable transboundary animal diseases globally. Its risks, transmission mechanisms, and control protocols are extensively documented and internationally standardized.
The current situation therefore demands answers:
Were bans or restrictions imposed on imports from countries affected by FMD?
Were risk assessments, data, and alerts available, and if so, why were they not acted upon?
Were inspection, quarantine, and certification protocols applied consistently at borders and points of entry?
Was there smuggling, weak border control, or enforcement failure?
Was there negligence, incompetence, or corruption and will this be investigated?
Regulations Without Enforcement Are Meaningless
If regulations governing animal health, imports, and biosecurity exist but were not enforced, this represents a failure of governance, not of farmers.
If regulations do not exist, are outdated, or are inadequate, this represents a policy failure that must be urgently corrected.
In both cases, the private sector bears the cost of state failure, while informal and illegal practices expand unchecked.
The Risk of Normalizing Failure
Public messaging that minimizes the implications of Foot and Mouth Disease or permits the use of meat and dairy products derived from infected animals raises serious concern.
While FMD is not primarily a human health disease, international practice is clear: the danger lies in accelerating viral spread through logistics, slaughtering, milk collection, and informal markets.
Permissive or reassuring messaging in the absence of strict containment:
weakens biosecurity compliance,
encourages informal practices,
accelerates spread,
and erodes public and international confidence in Lebanon’s food governance.
Imported Cattle, Borders, and Fair Competition
The outbreak also exposes long-standing vulnerabilities related to imported livestock and border controls.
Key questions remain unanswered:
Were imports properly certified, tested, and quarantined?
Were illegal or informal entry points monitored?
How is compliance enforced to protect Lebanese farmers who operate within the formal economy?
Farmers Paying the Price for Systemic Failure
Livestock farmers are now absorbing losses caused not by natural disaster, but by institutional failure.
Without clear protocols, timely vaccines, compensation mechanisms, and technical guidance, compliant farmers face the impossible choice of absorbing losses alone or exiting the productive economy altogether, deepening informality and fragility in the food supply.
Conclusion: Accountability, Transparency, and System Correction
This outbreak requires more than emergency response. It requires accountability.
The Lebanese Private Sector Network calls for:
a clear investigation into how this outbreak occurred,
public disclosure of findings,
identification of regulatory, enforcement, and data gaps,
and immediate corrective measures to prevent recurrence.
The Network requests clear and timely clarification on the measures being undertaken and on whether an investigation will be launched and made public. Within its policy and advocacy mandate, the Network remains ready to engage constructively on identifying regulatory gaps, preventive systems, and protocols necessary to protect food security, the public interest, and the formal economy.