Hoove and mouth disease, why the bother?

Factual Questions
1

I have studied zoology and microbiology, so I have a fair amount of knowlegde about nasty little microbes and how they can hurt a complex organizm like humans or cattle, but I can’t get this thought out of my head: Everytime I read about this Hoove and Mouth outbreak, or hear about it on the radio or TV, it is always stated that this illness does not effect humans. Then why are we worried about it? It is awful it see the cattle grow ill and die, but why destroy healthy animals when there has been an outbreak? And why are these animals not vaccinated against this disease if it’s such a big deal? I mean, cattle are already pumped full of all sorts of medications and chemicals, what’s one more?

The only reason I can think of is that if humans are exposed to this enough, they may catch it.

Any thoughts ladies and germs? :slight_smile:

2

Animals infected produce far less meat and milk than healthy ones.

Vaccinated animals are prohibited than export because there is no test to tell them from infected ones.

3

Don’t try to watch a movie and post at the same time. I think you got the gist of it though.

4

Vaccination is also tricky because there are many different (40+??) strains that all require separate vaccines.

Arjuna34

5

So there is no way to tell a vaccinated critter from an infected one? It makes sense, both the vaccinated and the infected cattle would have antibodies for the illness. I was under the impression that there were strict vaccine codes for animal importation, especially animals from other countries. Even if a creature looks healthy, it could be incubating a disease, or worse,be a resistant carrier. Any resources out there about this? I mean, when I moved from one state to another here in the U.S., I had to get health certificates for my cats before they could go on the plane.
I see what you mean about sick cattle not being about to produce as much, but it still seems wiser to isolate and euthanize the infected rather than kill every creature. As for vaccines, I thought a large number of them were “general”, covering several strains. Viri (viruses) are notorious for mutating, so but many vaccines cover this (for example the polio and rabibies vaccines in use today). It has been a while since I’ve studied this subject, so if there is anything I need to check out, please let me know.

6

We make a big deal of it because

  1. it’s extremely virulent and extremely contagious.
  2. it kills livestock.
  3. it travels easily, piggybacking on other animals, people’s shoes and clothing, the wind, birds, you name it.

Strictly speaking, the disease itself doesn’t kill, but it give the critters blisters and sores in their mouths and on their feet, they don’t eat, they can’t stand up, so they lie down–which gives them various other infections–and they starve or dehydrate.

In other words, it could wipe out the livestock industry unless we take the draconian measures you’ve been seeing and reading about.