FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 230, 17 December 1927, Page 25 (Supplement)

FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE

ITS RAVAGES ELSEWHERE NEED OF EXTREME CARE PROM time to time reports come to hand of fresh I made by foot and mouth disease in various parts = of Europe, Asia and America. Situated so far away from its influence, some Aiew Zealanders are inclined at times to feel a little resentful at the restrictions imposed in the importation ot stock, etc. It is pleasing to note, therefore, that at a recent meeting of the Hawke’s Bay A. and P. Association members expressed the hope that there would he no relaxation in the laws regulating importations.

"FOOT and mouth disease is an acute, A febrile, infectious disease that confines its attention chiefly to cloven-footed animals, though it has been known to attack humans. Children, when so affected, usually die from gastro-intes-tinal catarrh. The disease is spread through contact with fodder, litter, pastures, drinking water, clothes, etc., and possibly hides, wool and manure contaminated with excretions. There is also considered to be the possibility of carriers such as birds, and this theory is brought forward to account for the sudden jumps of outbreaks of the disease within a day or so to previously clean districts over one hundred miles away. In Switzerland experiments have proved that the disease will remain on a farm for at least six months, experiments there by Carree and Valle showing that the virus will remain in the pockets of the hoofs of affected animals from six weeks to eight months. A fevered condition accompanied by loss of appetite, decrease in lactation, and constipation, are generally the first symptoms of the disease. The saliva is at first frothy and then becomes ropy and mixed with threads of epithelium hanging from the rnouth. Foot lesions cause lameness through inflammation of the coronet. In cattle mouth lesions generally occur first, followed usually by foot lesions. In cows udder lesions and lesions of the vaginal mucus membrane may also appear. In sheep and pigs mouth lesions are not so constant, the disease paying more attention to the feet. Th« lesions or ulcers of the mouth are all vesicular in character and quite superficial and shallow, though they vary in size from that of a pea to about one inch in diameter. They burst in from one to three days, leaving a raw shallow ulcer which only becomes deep if a second bacterial invasion occurs.

Foot lesions occur at the junction of the hair and the hoof, and sometimes inside the hoof, especially in interstigital spaces.

In young animals the disease often develops into acute catarrhal gastroenteritis, which proves fatal. A malignant type may develop, particularly in older animals, where a form of intoxication occurs showing rigors, paralysis, intestinal haemorrhage, and finally coma and death.

In favourable cases some animals quickly regain their former strength following the healing of the lesions, which may take place within two to three weeks, but in unfavourable cases tho animals may die from multiple complications such as abcess formation, septicaemia and intoxication, the result of absorption of secondary abcesses. Mortality from tho actual disease itself is reported to be practically nil, but it is the after effects which cause so much economic loss.

In dairy cattle the after effects are reported to be particularly numerous and bring about considerable loss through the following factors: Loss of condition, which may never

bo regained. Milk yield decreased. Hoof lesions leading to anthritis

particularly in heavy animals, which have to be slaughtered. Abortion is a common sequel, while a percentage of the calves prove sterile subsequently. Inflammation of the udder and milk gland followed by the loss of quarters is a common result.

Treatment in a country such as New Zealand, especially with a view to checking its spread once it had been introduced, is considered by experts to be almost impossible. To a great

extent, except for the destruction of the affected animals, it would have to be left to take its course. Quarantine is,

of course, essential, and in Switzerland the authorities go a step further and persons- coming in contact with the disease are also included in the quarantine. No, the wisest course is that adopted by the Government at the present juncture. A strict watch kept on importations from countries where the disease is known to occur and nothing allowed in that offers the least opportunity for infection. New Zealand farmers, though particularly free from many of the pests affecting their brethren in many overseas countries, have enough of their own worries without running the risk of importing others.