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July 6, 2001

Foot & Mouth:
Should you be concerned?

By Mike Barnett
Editor

So what's the big deal about foot and mouth disease? It's usually not life-threatening to cattle, sheep or pigs that contract the disease. It poses little threat to humans. Yet during the recent outbreak in Great Britain, television shots panned time and time again the burning carcasses of scores of cattle, sheep and pigs that had been killed in an attempt to control the disease. The question is, why?

"Foot and mouth disease is a debilitating disease and the convalescent period is very extended," Dr. James Lenarduzzi, Area 5 director for the Texas Animal Health Commission, told those attending the Texas Farm Bureau Summer Commodity Conference in Victoria. "So when animals get the disease, it takes them a long time...usually a year to two years...to get back to the productive level they were at when they got the disease.

"That's the reason why it's very costly from a production standpoint. If we were to get the disease, we'd be looking at anywhere from a 20 to 50 percent reduction in beef produced and milk produced because of the disease. So that's why we don't feel like we can afford a disease like that."

That's a pretty significant impact when you consider Texas ranks first in the nation in cattle production.

"We're worth about $7.7 billion in our cow/calf operation," Lenarduzzi said. "We're also the number one state in the production of sheep and goats with a combined value of about $170 million. Hogs, we sell about $71 million a year.

"If Texas got the disease, we would be out of the $736 million in (beef) exports overnight. That would be stopped immediately. We wouldn't be able to export any beef or beef products. From a national standpoint, we'd be out of about $4.2 billion a year."

And then there's the impact on deer hunting and the exotic industry (foot and mouth disease will strike any cloven-hoofed animal). If Texas suffered a foot and mouth outbreak, all hunting would be cancelled.

"There's a lot at stake," the veterinarian concluded.

A Texas outbreak?

So what would happen in the event of an outbreak of foot and mouth in Texas? Lenarduzzi said TAHC would first quarantine the herd where the outbreak occurred and then quarantine all the premises within a six-mile radius of that herd.

"So we'd have a circle 12 miles in diameter that would be quarantined, meaning no animals would be able to move in or out of that area," he said. "People and equipment that would move in and out of that area would have to be disinfected and go through all kinds of different biosecurity measures."

There's no treatment for the highly contagious disease (if one animal in a herd gets it, the rest will follow). The only means of control is to destroy the animals that are exposed or infected before they spread the disease.

"As quickly as possible, we'd destroy the animals in the infected herds and all the herds around it," he said.

In addition, livestock markets in the area of the outbreak would be closed, as well as slaughter floors.

"The whole industry would just be shut down," Lenarduzzi said.

Be aware

The TAHC area director urged Texas livestock producers to be on the alert for the disease, pointing out that more than 4.8 million people travel to the U.S. from Great Britain each year.

He fears that the defenses the U.S. has erected against the disease that have worked for over 70 years could be overwhelmed by the mobility of today's society.

"The most important thing to remember about any foreign animal disease is early detection," Lenarduzzi said. "In Great Britain, they know now they had foot and mouth disease about six weeks before it was diagnosed. When the first pigs got sick...if there had been a diagnosis made within a week to 10 days...and before sheep were moved (across the coun-try)...Great Britain very likely right now would not have foot and mouth disease and they wouldn't have lost about 3 million animals."

Any producer who sees an unexplained death loss in his herd or flock—particularly if there are quite a few animals involved—should get a diagnosis quickly.

"We've always worried about foot and mouth disease," Lenarduzzi said. "It's the most dreaded of all livestock diseases. It's the very most expensive one if you get it.

"Anytime you see anything that has little blisters in the mouth, on the mucous membranes, around the teats, the hooves...get a diagnosis...as quick as you can!"