From the State Vet's Office: Foot-and-Mouth Disease

BY DR. TONY FRAZIER

A Foreign Animal Disease That Poses a Unique Problem

The position of the State Veterinarian was established by State Law to administer and enforce rules and regulations that had to do with livestock diseases or sanitary livestock regulations. Throughout the years, the diseases we have focused on have changed and a few other responsibilities have been added to us such as overseeing the veterinary diagnostic laboratory system. Nonetheless, our responsibility has always been to assure the health of our state flocks and herds. I suppose that if I divided my responsibilities into categories, surveillance and preparing to respond to foreign animal diseases would rank high in importance.

Foreign animal diseases (FADs) are just what the term says, diseases that are not normally found in the United States. They pose a unique problem because our domestic animal population has no immunity to those diseases. As we have seen with COVID-19 in the human population, where there is no immunity, a disease can spread very quickly. And when you factor in that animals do not know how to social distance and generally refuse to wear masks, a foreign animal disease could be disastrous.

There are two foreign animal diseases that tend to concern us more than others. Those are highly pathogenic avian influenza and foot-and-mouth disease. I mean no disrespect to all other FADs, but when we look at the potential for catastrophic losses to animal agriculture, those two diseases get the prize. I have written several articles in the past about avian influenza. Today, I want to make you familiar enough about foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) that you could at least answer a question about it on a game show.

Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious disease that can infect both domestic and wild cloven-hooved animals. (It was eradicated from the United States in 1929). For our purposes that includes cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. Horses are resistant because they are not cloven-hooved. The virus causes painful sores on the lips and in the mouth and on the feet between and just above the hooves. It is extremely devastating to young nursing animals because they will not nurse because of the pain and become dehydrated and die. The sores begin as blisters. The blisters rupture and leave ulcers that are not only painful but can easily become infected with bacteria. FMD can also cause abortions, heart disease, especially in newborns, and low milk production.

The virus is shed in an infected animal’s breath, saliva, urine and other secretions. It can survive in the environment for several months under proper conditions. FMD can be spread by contaminated vehicles, raw or improperly cooked meat from infected animals or contact with people wearing contaminated clothing. With world travel so prevalent today, there is always the concern that the FMD virus could catch a quick ride on a plane and still be alive when it gets to the United States. And while it is only speculation, it is possible that the FMD virus has traveled to the United States on unsuspecting passengers but has fortunately not been introduced into our animal population.

FMD was a hot topic back in the early 2000s when the United Kingdom experienced a severe outbreak and lost around six million cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. It is hard to believe that we are nearly 20 years down the road from that outbreak. There is a school of thought that says that the longer it has been since the last outbreak of a particularly bad disease, the closer we are to the next outbreak. The bottom line is that we can never let our guard down when it comes to diseases that could devastate animal agriculture. And FMD, being the most contagious virus known to man, fits into that category.

The disease was going strong in the United Kingdom about the time I became State Veterinarian. In fact, one of my first official acts was to quarantine some tractors at the port of Mobile. Those tractors had originated from farms in the U.K., and most likely some of those farms had animals positive for footand-mouth disease. To be released from quarantine, the tractors had to be sufficiently cleaned and disinfected to assure that if the virus was present, it would be neutralized.

We do have a plan if FMD were to make it into our borders. And over the years, we have exercised various parts of the plan. We have exercised getting onto and off a farm without tracking and spreading the virus. We have had exercises that dealt with mass disposal of animal carcasses. This fall we plan to exercise the “stop movement” portion of the plan. Each time we have exercised a portion of our plan, we have found gaps and deficiencies that we have been able to patch up and adjust in case the real thing comes along.

In November of this year, Southern Animal Health Association along with USDA Veterinary Services will be conducting another exercise to tighten up our foreign animal disease response plan. Hopefully we will answer a few questions such as: What would a stop movement order look like when implemented? Do we have the legal authority to stop animals from coming to Alabama if there is a state where there is known infection? What would happen if a disease like footand-mouth disease got into the feral hog population?

After that exercise we will be even better prepared to respond to the disease if it ever gets into the United States animal population, especially here in the Southeast. During disasters, both natural and man-made, there is plenty of confusion and chaos to go around. Our job is to be able to work through our prepared plan and minimize the confusion and chaos to an acceptable level.

It is our hope and desire that we continue to fine tune our plan, but never have to use it. I do think that if we approach foreign animal disease outbreaks with a “not if, but when” mindset, we will be prepared when the time comes to respond.

Our livestock producers play a major role in our response to foot-and-mouth disease by reporting to us or their veterinarian anytime they have animals with mouth lesions or multiple animals with sore feet. Is it likely to be foot-and-mouth disease? Probably not. But we cannot afford to be wrong and miss the early cases of an outbreak because we were too casual in our approach. It is much easier to put out a fire before it spreads. The same is true with foot-andmouth disease.