#18,544
Foot & Mouth Disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral disease that primarily afflicts cloven-hoofed animals (including cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, deer, etc.) and poses a serious threat to agricultural interests around the world (see map above).
FMD - which only rarely infects humans (see APHIS slide below) - is caused by a picornavirus, and has no relation to HFMD, which is a childhood disease in humans caused by a number of non-polio enteroviruses.
Two days ago Germany announced their first detection of FMD since 1988. Although Bulgaria reported a limited outbreak in 2011, the last big outbreak in Europe was in the UK in 2001.
Its impact was described in a 2021 WOAH bulletin.
The outbreak lasted 221 days and resulted in 6.45 million animals being culled across the UK. It led to around £5 billion in costs to wider industry and society, highlighting the vast damage disease outbreaks could cause, both directly and indirectly. It had a lasting effect on individuals, including their mental health, as well as the broader agricultural sector and rural communities.In 2011, South Korea experienced a prolonged outbreak of FMD, with roughly 3.5 million animals destroyed (151,425 cattle, 3,318,299 pigs, 8,071 goats, and 2,728 deer) and buried at more than four thousand locations around the country (see EID Journal Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease during 2010–2011 Epidemic, South Korea).
While some outbreaks are relatively quickly contained, it is easy to see why governments and agricultural interests take any appearance of FMD seriously.
Yesterday Germany's BMEL (Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture) published the following update. I'll have a postscript after the break.
On January 10, 2025, a case of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed in water buffalo in the Märkisch-Oderland district of Brandenburg. Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral infection of cloven-hoofed animals (cattle, sheep, goats and pigs). Zoo and wild animals can also contract FMD. The disease is widespread worldwide. The disease is harmless to humans. The disease has not occurred in Germany since 1988. The federal states are responsible for controlling animal diseases in Germany.On January 10, 2025, a case of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed in water buffalo in the Märkisch-Oderland district of Brandenburg. Official measures to kill the affected animals and set up exclusion zones were initiated immediately. Epidemiological investigations to clarify the origin of the disease and to identify possible contact farms are currently being carried out with the support of the Friedrich Loeffler Institute.The most important things in brief
- Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious, usually non-fatal viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals, but can also affect certain other species.
- FMD is widespread worldwide. However, FMD has not been present in the European Union for several years.
- FMD is a vesicular disease of the claws, oral mucosa and udder that cannot be clinically distinguished from other vesicular diseases. Therefore, laboratory diagnostics are crucial for the clarification of suspected cases.
- The virus is easily transmitted by both animate and inanimate vectors, particularly animals in the incubation period or clinically affected animals and their products, but it can also spread over long distances by air.
- Animals that have recovered from the disease can remain carriers of the infectious FMD virus for a long period of time.
- FMD is not dangerous for humans. Under today's usual hygienic conditions, pasteurized milk or milk products pose no danger to consumers. Experience from FMD epidemics in the past supports this assessment. The specialist literature describes individual infections in humans who had direct and intensive contact with infected cloven-hoofed animals or with the FMD virus. In these rare cases, the disease was benign.
While FMD hasn't been reported in the U.S. since 1929, it remains endemic around the world. A 2015 study estimated its cost - should it return - could reach $200 billion dollars.
At the USDA, FAD PReP stands for Foreign Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Plan, and while currently invoked for HPAI, FAD PReP is assigned to deal with a variety of imported animal diseases, including:
Just as with zoonotic diseases, the risks of seeing foreign animal diseases imported into this country continue to rise as international travel, and trade, increases.
While many of these diseases don't directly impact human health, some of them - like avian influenza, Anthrax, Brucellosis, Japanese encephalitis, Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever, and Rift Valley Fever - can pose a significant threat to public health.
For a long (and growing) list of notifiable animal diseases, you may wish to peruse the USDA's Notifiable Diseases and Conditions webpage.
