Consequences of Hoof & Mouth Disease

Hoof and mouth disease is a contagious viral infection that affects animals with hooves like cows, pigs, sheep and goats. There is no cure for Hoof and mouth disease, meaning that infected animals must be put down.

  1. Types

    • Some consequences of hoof and mouth disease affect the animal directly or are primary, and others occur as a result of having to destroy infected animals, making them secondary consequences.

    Symptoms

    • Consequences or symptoms of hoof and mouth disease include refusal to eat, the appearance of lesions or sores in the animal's mouth, fever, increased salivation and lameness. Cows infected with hoof and mouth disease produce little or no milk, and the infection causes miscarriages or stillbirths in pregnant animals.

    Features

    • The largest secondary consequence of hoof and mouth disease is financial loss, both to the farmer and the economy. An outbreak of hoof and mouth disease in the United Kingdom during the mid 2000s cost the country more than $10 billion, according to the University of Illinois.

    Prevention

    • There is a vaccine available for some strains of hoof and mouth disease, but in the United States, the injections are only given when there is a definite risk from a known strain of the virus. The U.S. Department of Agriculture thoroughly inspects all imports of meat products and feed for livestock to detect the hoof and mouth virus and prevent it from entering the United States.

    Considerations

    • The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a program in place to partially compensate farmers if their animals need to be destroyed because of hoof and mouth disease. While this is a solution for the farmers, the cost is then transferred to the federal government and taxpayers.