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Recommended resources for veterinary and animal science

Foot and Mouth Disease

About the Disease

By Dr Robert Dixon and Dr Andrew Turner

Foot and Mouth Disease is a highly contagious disease of most cloven-hoofed animals and is caused by an apthovirus of the family Picornaviridae. There are 7 serotypes of the virus which can be further subdivided into over 60 subtypes.

Of the domestic cloven-hoofed animals, the disease is particularly severe in cattle and pigs but is not fatal in older animals. First indication of the disease in cattle is fever accompanied by depression and a severe milk production drop and abortion in pregnant animals. This can occur as short as 2-3 days after infection. Vesicles can develop within a day after the first signs are observed. These are first observed on the tongue, lips, gum and dental pad. They then appear in the interdigital cleft, coronary bands and heel bulbs and manifest as lameness. Vesicles also appear on the teats. The vesicles rapidly enlarge and generally rupture in 24 hours. Cattle, buffalo and sheep form a latent or persistent infection that can reactivate years after primary infection.

In pigs, the lesions tend to be more pronounced on the feet, resulting in acute lameness. Vesicles are found on the snout, but vesicles on the tongue are not common, tend to be small and quickly heal.

The pig is important in the spread of the infection. Numerous outbreaks have been attributed to the initial feeding of contaminated or infected material to pigs. Pigs then amplify the infection to levels where it easily infects other susceptible species. With some strains, pigs produced large aerosols of virus which, from large production units with forced ventilation can spread infection to cattle over long distances. The pig does not form a latent or persistent infection.

Latest updates

UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) News Releases

BBC News: Foot and Mouth

The Guardian Special Report

The Times Newspaper.

ProMED-mail latest foot and mouth information
ProMED-mail is a program for monitoring emerging diseases produced by the International Society for Infectious Diseases.

Australasian Resources

National Animal Health Information System (NAHIS)
Includes information on aetiology, natural hosts, world distribution, occurrences in Australia, pathogenesis, epidemiology, clinical signs, pathology, differential diagnosis, laboratory diagnostic specimens and laboratory procedures.

AFFA: Foot and Mouth Disease
This site, from the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Australia (AFFA), includes a daily bulletin, questions and answers, updates on product bans, import conditions, advice to travellers and a range of other information about the disease. It also links to a map showing the spread of Pan-Asian Foot and Mouth Disease.

Exercise Minotaur: National Foot and Mouth Disease Simulation
This website, created by Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry Australia (AFFA), provides details of the Exercise Minotaur, a national simulation, held from 8-13 September 2002, aimed at testing Australian governments' (state and federal) preparedness, response and recovery in the face of a major outbreak of FMD.

AUSVETPLAN: Foot and Mouth Disease
The Australian Veterinary Emergency Plan deals with planning effective responses to emergency disease outbreaks. The Animal Health Australia website publishes AUSVETPLAN documents covering disease strategies, operational procedures and enterprise and management manuals.

Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS)
AQIS provides "quarantine inspection services for the arrival of international passengers, cargo, mail, animals and plants or their products into Australia, and inspection and certification for a range of animal and plant products exported from Australia". The site includes access to ICON, the import conditions database, and a range of other services and links.

Foot and Mouth Disease
NSW Department of Agriculture information sheet on Foot and Mouth Disease. Contains pictures and information on symptoms and early diagnosis.

Exotic diseases of animals : a field guide for Australian veterinarians / W.A. Geering, A.J. Forman and M.J. Nunn. Canberra, A.C.T. : Australian Government Publishing Service, 1995.

Foot and Mouth Disease
Published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), New Zealand, this site provides information on the disease, the risk to New Zealand, news updates and links.

Information from the United Kingdom and Europe

MAFF Foot and Mouth Disease Page
From the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) in the UK, this page includes latest news updates and a range of useful links including an overview and interactive maps of infected premises, the Minister's statement and fact sheets.

Foot and Mouth: tracing the epidemic
Published by the Guardian, this site uses freely downloadable Macromedia Flash software to create a map of the outbreak history.

Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Foot and Mouth Disease Resources Page
Includes bibliographies of scientific literature on Foot and Mouth Disease and links to information about the recent outbreak.

The Royal Society Inquiry into Infectious Diseases in Livestock
This report, released in July 2002, arises from the Royal Society Inquiry into Infectious Diseases in Livestock. It outlines some of the ways that future transmission of foort and mouth disease and subsequent epidemics may be prevented and better controlled. The report was prepared by a committee comprised of scientists, veterinarians, farmers, and other concerned parties who made site visits to areas affected by the outbreak, along with compiling an extensive oral account of the epidemic. Oral and written testimony collected by different members of the committee are also includes. The report is in .pdf format.

The Pirbright OIE/FAO World Reference Laboratory Foot and Mouth Disease Website
The Institute for Animal Health (Pirbright Laboratory) is designated the World Reference Laboratory for Foot and Mouth Disease by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the Office International des Epizooties (OIE). This site contains links to news of the current outbreak in the United Kingdom, reports of the World Reference Laboratory for Foot and Mouth Disease (WRLFMD), the contents pages of the Foot and Mouth Disease Newsletter, published by the European Union Reference Laboratory for Foot and Mouth Disease, and information about the standardisation of vesicular virus diagnosis. The site also contains methodologies, reagents and protocols published by the WRLFMD Molecular Epidemiology Group and information on epidemiology and genetic relationships. A range of OIE Disease Reports and information sheets are also available.

OIE International standards
Standards concerning the risks of Foot and Mouth Disease associated with trade in animals and animal products, published by the Office International des Epizooties.

Foot-and-mouth disease: Results of the Standing Veterinary Committee of the European Commission Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General. Published in Brussels, 7 March 2001.

Press releases
of the European Commission Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General.

Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) photos & resources
This UK site provides a list of links to resources including photographs, archives and information about subjects including the epidemiology and history of the disease.

Foot and Mouth Disease: the history
Written by Abigail Woods, MA, MSc, VetMB, MRCVS and published by the University of Manchester, this site provides a history of Foot and Mouth Disease in Britain and links to key sites.

OIE/FAO international scientific conference on foot and mouth disease
Office International des Epizooties developed this 19-paged document on the OIE/FAO International Scientific Conference on foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) which was held in Paris on 17-18 April 2001. Contributions were received from leading world scientists and representatives of the five OIE Regional Commissions, acting on behalf of the 157 OIE Member Countries from the five continents. The objectives of the conference were to consider foot and mouth disease issues and draft science-based recommendations and resolutions.The document is in .pdf format.

Research databases and indexes

Recommended research databases and indexes for this area of study are: BIOSIS Previews, CAB Abstracts, MEDLINE, AGRICOLA and Web of Science.