What is Foot in Mouth Disease, what causes it and is it contageous to humans/other animals?
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Hoof and Mouth disease is a viral infection that affects cloven hoof animals- like cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. It is caused by any one of seven different varients of the virus and which one has to be determined by a laboratory. It is not contagious to humans, although there is a disease of people we call foot and mouth disease it's not caused by the same virus at all. However, humans can carry the virus from one spot to another, so we can transport it from one diseased animal to infect a healthy animal some distance away. The exact symptoms vary a bit from animal to animal, but usually involve blisters and the breakdown of the hooves or lining of the mouth. It's not necessarily fatal in and of itself, but it leaves the animal weakened and susceptible to other diseases in the meantime. It can kill very young animals, but not as a rule. Even if an animal does survive the disease, it remains a sickly animal. Cows can developp a chronic mastitis, which prevents them being able to nurse a calf well or the milk used by people. A pregnant cow will often abort the calf, and may be left sterile. Needless to say, no calf, no milk- and a good possibility of none in the future. Plus a year without milk, but needed the same amount of feed, means a serious financial drain on the farmer without any real promise of improvement. And it's highly contagious, so you don't get just one animal with it. It won't even stay just on your farm, it will spread out to other farms in the neighborhood, and out from there. There is a vaccination available that can help protect an animal, but unfortunately it won't help prevent them from carrying the virus and infecting other animals. And it's not always dependable for protection either. The uproar is because a widespread outbreak can quickly cripple the farming industry, and bankrupt the farmers. That would cascade through the entire economy, not to mention what it would do to food prices in general. So it's important to get under control as quickly as possible.
Foot in mouth Disease (as you stated) is a not so rare condition involving humans. We are very social creatures and often participate in the art of communication. When one says something he shouldn't they are said to have a disease called "Foot in mouth Disease". This person feels so embarrassed after their incredibly stupid comment that they put their foot in their mouth. Yes, it's amazing.
On second thought.
If you were referring to Foot AND mouth disease. Don't worry -- humans are rarely affected. This disease is also called hoof-and-mouth disease, is a highly contagious and sometimes fatal viral disease of cattle and pigs. It can also infect deer, goats, sheep, and other bovids with cloven hooves, as well as elephants, rats, and hedgehogs.
Not to be confused with hand, foot and mouth disease
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD, Latin name Aphtae epizooticae), sometimes called hoof-and-mouth disease, is a highly contagious and sometimes fatal viral disease of cattle and pigs. It can also infect deer, goats, sheep, and other bovids with cloven hooves, as well as elephants, rats, and hedgehogs. Humans are affected only very rarely.
The cause of FMD was first shown to be viral in 1897 by Friedrich Loeffler. He passed the blood of an infected animal through a fine porcelain filter and found that the fluid that was collected could still cause the disease in healthy animals.
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added -->>
Symptoms
Foot-and-mouth disease is characterized by high fever that declines rapidly after two or three days; blisters inside the mouth that lead to excessive secretion of stringy or foamy saliva and to drooling; and blisters on the feet that may rupture and cause lameness. Adult animals may suffer weight loss from which they do not recover for several months as well as swelling in the testicles of mature males, and in cows, milk production can decline significantly. Though most animals eventually recover from FMD, the disease can lead to myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and death, especially in newborn animals. Some infected animals remain asymptomatic, that is, they do not suffer from or show signs of the disease; but they are carriers of FMD and can transmit it to others.
Infection with foot-and-mouth disease tends to occur locally, that is, the virus is passed on to susceptible animals through direct contact with infected animals or with contaminated pens or vehicles used to transport livestock. The clothes and skin of animal handlers such as farmers, standing water, and uncooked food scraps and feed supplements containing infected animal products can harbor the virus as well. Cows can also catch FMD from the semen of infected bulls. Control measures include quarantine and destruction of infected livestock, and export bans for meat and other animal products to countries not infected with the disease.
Humans can be infected with foot-and-mouth disease through contact with infected animals, but this is extremely rare. Because the virus that causes FMD is sensitive to stomach acid, it cannot spread to humans via consumption of infected meat. In the UK, the last confirmed human case occurred in 1967, and only a few other cases have been recorded in countries of continental Europe, Africa, and South America. Symptoms of FMD in humans include malaise, fever, vomiting, red ulcerative lesions (surface-eroding damaged spots) of the oral tissues, and sometimes vesicular lesions (small blisters) of the skin.
There is another viral disease with similar symptoms, commonly referred to as “hand, foot, and mouth disease,” that occurs more frequently in humans, especially in young children; this disease is caused by a different virus of the family Picornaviridae, namely, an Enterovirus called Coxsackie A virus.
I believe you wanted foot and mouth disease not foot in mouth disease,
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a severe, highly communicable viral disease of cattle and swine. It also affects sheep, goats, deer, and other cloven-hooved ruminants. FMD is not recognized as a zoonotic disease.
The disease is characterized by fever and blister-like lesions followed by erosions on the tongue and lips, in the mouth, on the teats, and between the hooves. Many affected animals recover, but the disease leaves them debilitated. It causes severe losses in the production of meat and milk.
Hi,
Hand-foot-mouth disease is a common childhood illness featuring mouth sores, fever, and a rash. Hand-foot-mouth disease is usually caused by a virus called coxsackievirus A16. A variety of other viruses in the Enterovirus family can also cause hand-foot-mouth disease (the coxsackieviruses are enteroviruses). The viruses that cause hand-foot-mouth disease are present both in the stool and in the respiratory secretions. It can spread by fecal–oral transmission, droplet transmission, contact transmission, and by means of fomites. Hand cleansing—especially after diapering/toileting and before eating—can help reduce its spread. Children are often kept out of school or daycare for the first several days of the illness, but it is not clear this prevents others from becoming infected. Other children in the class are probably contagious even though they will never develop symptoms.
Read more here-
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hand-fo...
Regards,
Dr. Gupta
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