What problem can foot and mouth disease cause?

Answer 1

Foot and Mouth Disease causes vesicles (kind of like very nasty blisters) on the muzzle, tongue, teats and skin above the hooves of animals. It affects any and every cloven-hooved mammal (from cattle to pigs to sheep and even deer, bison and antelope). It is VERY infectious, but it is rarely fatal (it usually only kills young animals). However though the disease is rarely fatal, it is a disease that spreads very rapidly and can only be contained by quarantining the animals and humanely euthanizing all animals that are affected, are carriers, or that have been exposed to the virus and are not showing symptoms yet.

The disease is caused by a picornavirus which is spread via contact with other animals and through the air (an airborne virus). The virus being airborne is how many livestock in Great Britain got infected with FMD so quickly, since most farms were close in proximity with each other and the winds could easily spread the virus from one farm to another.

FMD causes animals to reduce feed intake, decrease in fertility and milk production, and reduces growth rates in young stock. Even if an animal recovers from the FMD virus, they are still potential carriers and tend to not be as productive as they were before they were severely infected with this virus. Most animals need to be humanely slaughtered, burned and buried to kill and contain this horrendous disease.

There is a vaccine available for livestock with FMD, but it's reliability is pretty much worthless, to say the least, since the vaccine is made for only one common species of virus, and not for the other subspecies of viruses that are associated with causing this disease.

FMD is not to be confused with the human-form of Foot, Hand and Mouth Disease. FMD is not zoonotic, so it cannot be transferred from animal to human and vice versa. Rather FHMD is an altogether-different disease that affects humans only.