Foot & Mouth (was Ducks)

[Amanda Lewanski]

Benjamin wrote:

> Too right.  Not only do they make a complete mess of the place, but
> they can probably carry foot and mouth too, _and_ they refuse to walk
> over the disinfecting mats...

This has nothing to do with ducks, but it reminded me. There was a
question about foot & mouth, its actual effect on animals (because it
isn't fatal), and why all the slaughtering, why couldn't farmers just
nurse their animals through it. So I asked my husband, who works in
medical research, to ask his boss (a very experienced veterinarian).

What he told me is that while foot & mouth is not fatal, it really isn't
analogous to "just a case of the flu," which is a phrase I've seen when
doing web searches. The duration is about six months. One of the effects
is painful pustules or blisters on the feet and in the mouth, so the
animals don't want to eat because it hurts them to. So they lose weight,
seriously, and by the time they're over the disease, they're walking
skeletons.

It can take months, even up to two years, to feed an animal adequately
to build it back up to where it is marketable, or even in a fit
condition to breed. Often the feed you must give such a convalescent
needs to be of higher quality than standard feed (and thus more
expensive). While you are paying for their feed, you aren't bringing in
any income, because foot and mouth is *so* incredibly contagious that
all your animals have (had) it.

In fact, my husband said there were instances where a farm was simply
downwind of another farm where there was foot and mouth, and it spread
that way. It's insanely contagious.

So even assuming farmers had the option of nursing their herds through
it, it's still essentially financial ruin, given the time for which the
animals are actually sick (which is probably about seven to eight
months, allowing for time to spread all through your animals, during
whch you're paying for treatment, probably with lessened income), and
then given the extended time for the convalescence of animals until
they're up to a fit state. You'd have to sell the farm.

This scenario, coupled with the fact that it's so very contagious and
will rampage through a whole country doing this to just about ALL the
livestock producers, does seem to give some grounds to the extreme
measures taken to contain it. It's not a physical danger, but it's a
serious threat of bankruptcy to an entire section of the economy.

I had been curious, hearing that it didn't even affect humans, so I
wanted to find out what the disease was all about.

--Amanda
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