by Darian Peters

Created on: February 24, 2009

Foot and mouth disease is a viral disease of cows that can also exist in a number of other variants that infect various other cloven-hoofed animals such as pigs and sheep, for example. The disease is a very contagious one and is sometimes fatal. But it is damaging not only in terms of the harm that it does to the animals but also in terms of the financial cost that it causes to the rural economy. Outbreaks of the disease can lead to entire herds of cows being slaughtered. So what are the symptoms to look for in cows and how can it be treated?

The incubation period of the disease can last anything between 2 and 12 days. An initial symptom of the disease is a high fever in the cow although this diminishes after a couple days. But certainly the most important indication that the disease is present in the cow is the blistering that can occur to various parts of the animal. One place that this can occur is in the mouth where, it leads to an excessive drooling of saliva that appears as a kind of foaming at the mouth.

Where the blisters appear on the feet of the cows this can lead to lameness. Weight loss can occur and also a lowering of milk production in cows can result from the disease. In some cases inflammation of heart muscle can result and this can lead to death. At the other extreme some cows will remain symptomless but can still carry the disease, which is potentially problematic for containing the disease.

The transmission of the disease is through physical contact in an alarming number of different ways. This may involve close contact between the cows, for example. But it could just as easily be through contact with contaminated food or inanimate objects such as the clothing of farm workers and vehicles. The disease can also be spread by air and water. Cows can even pick up the disease from infected bull semen.

Faced with this kind of threat from so many different potential sources of transmission the treatment of the disease is often extreme and done with great urgency. This can involve quarantining entire farms and culling entire herds of cows. On a wider level export bans can be put in place to stop meat from countries with the disease from entering countries that are not known to have it. There are vaccinations available for the seven serotypes of FMD, but the virus mutates so much and there are so many strains that these only stay current for at most a few years.

Learn more about this author, Darian Peters.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.