Farm Progress America, Jan. 2, 2025

Mike Pearson tells listeners how an act of Congress is going to help keep the United States border safe.

The beagle brigade is a group of specially trained dogs that protect this country's agriculture. They are fully trained dogs that sniff out threats coming into the USA.

These dogs are mostly beagles and use their nose to keep agriculture safe.

The beagle brigade is used at airports, seaports and other entry points into the USA to sniffing out potential dangers to U.S. agriculture.

The dogs sniff out prohibited plants, meat products that carry pests and animal byproducts that carry foreign diseases.

The Beagle Brigade ACT was recently passed in Congress with a final vote in the senate of 380-20.

It authorizes full funding for the USDA national dog detector center in Atlanta that trains the dogs to use their noses to find threats to agriculture.

Over 4,600 products are found daily by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection that can hurt U.S. agriculture.

These illegal items cost the U.S economy $138 billion each year in losses.

On example is the pork industry, these dogs are the first line of defense against African Swine Fever.

The pork disease has been detected as close as Hispaniola-- which is just 700 miles away from the USA.

This country depends on these dogs to keep the threats away from our food supply.

Related: Registration for Feedlot Forum 2025 closes January 6

Farm Progress America is a daily look at key issues in agriculture. It is produced and presented by Mike Pearson, farm broadcaster and host of This Week in Agribusiness .