What is Foot and Mouth Disease?

Foot and Mouth disease is a highly infectious viral disease of cloven hoofed animals including cattle, pigs, sheep and goats.

Symptoms include:

• Mouth blisters causing salivation and difficulty in eating. In some cases parts of the tongue or snout may be lost.
• Blisters on the feet resulting in lameness and sometimes the loss of the horny parts of the hoof.

Death is not usual in adult animals but they lose, or cease gaining weight. Milk production in dairy cattle falls. Affected animals are worthless at market.

Foot and mouth disease has been likened to that of influenza in man. Not the mild dose of 'flu' that is an excuse for a couple of days in bed but something like the 1918 outbreak that killed over 20,000,000 people. The disease kills young animals of all susceptible species. In recent Mediterranean outbreaks, between 45% and 94% of lambs died.

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