Foot and Mouth Disease Virus (Animal)

Primary reference(s)

FAO, 2012. Foot-and-mouth disease Frequently Asked Questions. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Accessed 3 October 2020.

OIE, 2018 Foot & Mouth disease (FMD). World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Accessed 3 October 2020.

Additional scientific description

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a devastating animal disease affecting all cloven-hoofed animals, both domestic and wild species. The viruses that cause FMD are among of the most infectious agents known to veterinary or human medicine, which is why it strikes deep fear into livestock farmers, especially in countries that are free from the disease (FAO, 2012).

FMD is characterised by the formation of vesicles (blisters) in and around the oral cavity, feet and on the teats. It has huge detrimental impact on livelihoods, food security and national economies through loss of milk yields, lowered fertility and reduced or prohibited access to markets (FAO, 2012; OIE, 2018).

The most common way for the FMD virus to spread is by animal movements that bring healthy animals into contact with FMD-infected animals. Secretions from sick animals are extremely infectious. FMD-infected animals grazing together, sharing a similar drinking water point can lead to exchange of contaminated saliva. Cattle, buffaloes, sheep and goats are especially vulnerable to infection transmitted by aerosols (moisture in exhalation), which is the main source of infection in animals living in close quarters (FAO, 2012).

In rare cases, FMD infection has appeared to ‘jump’ over long distances including large bodies of water, but this usually only occurs if many sick animals are densely housed together creating an ‘infected plume’ (FAO, 2012).

The morbidity rate may approach 100% in susceptible cattle populations and death can occur in young animals. FMD is estimated to circulate in 77% of the global livestock population, in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, as well as in a limited area of South America. Low income and lower-middle income countries bear 75% of the global costs of FMD prevention and control and Africa and Eurasia are the regions contributing the most to that cost, accounting for 50% and 33% of the global expenditure of FMD control and prevention, respectively (OIE, 2018). Thus, it threatens the livelihood of millions of poor livestock keepers and food security in the FMD endemic regions. FMD-infected countries are excluded from international trade of live susceptible animals, their meat and meat products (FAO, 2012).

Countries that are currently FMD-free remain under constant threat of an incursion.

Although FMD had been largely controlled in developed nations, in 2001, an outbreak in the UK spread to the Netherlands, with smaller outbreaks in France and Ireland, before being brought under control by widespread culling. The experience left its mark on the psyche of many of the farmers that lived through the tragedy: the UK alone suffered economic losses of more than USD 12 billion, and some 6.5 million sheep, cattle and pigs were slaughtered to halt the spread of the disease (FAO, 2012).

FMD can be controlled by vaccination, however there are seven immunologically distinct serotypes: A, O, C, SAT1, SAT2, SAT3, and Asia1 which do not confer cross immunity (OIE, 2018).

There is no health risk to humans from FMD; regardless, meat, dairy and animal products destined for human consumption should come only from healthy animal sources (FAO, 2012).

Metrics and numeric limits

Foot-and-mouth disease is one of the diseases listed in the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code, one of the international standards used for the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement (OIE, 2019).

Examples of drivers, outcomes and risk management

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) are working together for global control of FMD. In partnership with the FAO-based European Commission for the Control of Footand- Mouth Disease (EuFMD), the FAO has developed the Progressive Control Pathway for Foot-and-Mouth Disease control (PCP-FMD), which guides endemic countries through a series of incremental steps to successfully control the disease (FAO, 2012).

At the global level, the FAO and OIE Crisis Management Centre for Animal Health (CMC-AH) is a rapid response unit available to deploy assistance on the ground and guide affected countries in policymaking in the event of an animal disease emergency (FAO, 2012).

Drivers: lack of biosecurity, swill feeding, transport of susceptible animals (cattle, buffaloes, pigs, sheep, goats and other cloven-hoofed ruminants) and uncooked animal products (FAO, 2012).

Outcomes: spread of infection, trade ban, compromise Sustainable Development Goals.

Risk management: vaccination with matching vaccine (prevention), depopulation of infected herds, movement control, improve farm biosecurity (OIE, 2018).