WHY IS EVERYBODY AFRAID OF FOOT-AND-MOUTH?
What is it? Foot-and-mouth is a severe, highly contagious viral disease that affects cloven-hooved animals, including cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and deer. The disease is characterized in animals by fever and blister-like lesions on the tongue and lips, in the mouth, on the teats, and between the claws. The virus can kill young animals as it causes inflammation of the heart muscle walls although many animals survive. But the disease leaves them debilitated, causing severe losses in the production of meat and milk. There is no effective treatment for the disease. Because foot-and-mouth can spread widely and rapidly and because it has grave economic as well as physical consequences, it is one of the animal diseases that livestock owners dread most. Does it affect people? People can be infected through skin wounds or through inhalation while handling diseased stock, the virus in the laboratory, or by drinking infected milk, but not by eating meat from infected animals. The human infection
