USDA opens temp cattle crossings on U.S./Mexico border

Alternative sites will help keep cattle moving across the U.S./Mexico border, if APHIS officials can’t conduct inspections in Mexico.    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has recently completed three contingency livestock inspections facilities at border ports in New Mexico and Arizona. 
   The agency said “several hundred thousand” cattle cross through these state border locations each year. These alternative sites will help keep cattle moving across the U.S./Mexico border if APHIS officials are unable to cross into Mexico to conduct inspections.
   “Our hope is that we never have to use one of these facilities and our inspectors can continue to safely cross into Mexico to conduct inspections,” said Edward Avalos, USDA’s undersecretary of marketing and regulatory programs, in a statement. “But we are prepared to adjust and utilize these facilities, which have the same capacity as the inspection locations in Mexico, to maintain trade at the same level and minimize impact to the local economies.”
   The facilities are located in Nogales and Douglas, Ariz., and Columbus, N.M.