OCR Text |
Show Watch Your Livestock For These Signs Of Fooi-M-Mouth Disease What is the character of foot-and foot-and mouth disease? Although the dread scourge is being contained underneath the quarantine line in Mexico, it is apparent that the disease will 'exist in that country for many J years. Therefore, it behooves stockmen of the United States to always be on the alert for evidence evi-dence of foot-and-mouth in this1 COUntrV. as Wnll nc Triwi. , T V . 7" ' " e- Iant in a campaign to bar entrance en-trance of the disease. Foot - and - mouth disease is characterized by blisters around the mouth, on the tongue, on the skin between the toes and above the hoofs, and on the teats ; and udders. These blisters break I after a short period, generally I within 24 hours. In hogs, lesions frequently occur on and above the snout. In rare cases, the. muzzles of cattle are affected. In sheep, goats and deer, the feet are the most common com-mon site of the vesicle formation. forma-tion. Mouth lesions cause salivation, saliva-tion, especially in cattle. The lesions of foot-and-mouth disease heal rather rapidly, but in some instances those on the feet may give rise to serious secondary bacterial infections. .beiorc and lor a short time after the appearance of lesions there is a striking rise in temperature. During the attack, the animals lose considerable flesh. In cows, there is a serious reduction in the milk flow. Deterioration of the animals may cause far greater loss than the actual death loss, which is estimated in ordinary outbreaks to be approximately 5 per cent. There is, however, a malignant form of the disease which may be accompanied by heart lesions. The infective agent in foot-and-mouth disease is a filtrable virus. These viruses can pass through filters that hold back the smallest bacteria and they cannot be seen with the most powerful microscope. In the United States, extreme caution is used in making the diagnosis. di-agnosis. Failure to recognize the disease when it exists might permit per-mit the extensive spread of the malady perhaps to such an extent that even radical methods would not eliminate it or would do so at very great cost. On the other hand, to make an incorrect diagnosis of foot-and-mouth disease di-sease would mean unnecessarily unnecessar-ily imposing severe and costly quarantines and restrictions, locally, lo-cally, nationally and internationally, interna-tionally, in addition to needless slaughter of animals. Only two other diseases cause inflammatory changes in the mucous mu-cous membrances of the mouth or the skin of the feet or both in cattle, swine, sheep, goats and other cloven-footed animals. These are the virus diseases of vesicular stomatitis and vesicular vesicu-lar exanthema of swine. An incident in which cattle with vesicular stomatitis were discovered created excitement in Colorado last year, but veterinarians veterin-arians were called in soon enough to check any widespread of rumors ru-mors of foot-and-mouth or quarantining quar-antining of the area. The excitement ex-citement that developed, .however, .how-ever, was a good demonstration of the need for calling in state or federal veterinarians immediately immed-iately when foot-and-mouth is suspected. Any unusual disease outbreak among cattle, sheep or hogs that could be the beginning of a foot- and-mouth disease epidemic should be reported immediately ' by telephone or telegraph to the j nearest state or federal veterinarian's veterin-arian's office. I In the meantime, if the disease is suspected, all possible channels chan-nels by which the disease might be spread should be closed. Dogs, cats and roving livestock should be confined. An alarm that might create more harm than good should not be stirred uo until an authority has had ah opportunity to check on the disease di-sease and determine whether or not it is foot-and-mouth. Conditions favoring the prompt . eradication of the disease di-sease are: 1. Early discovery of the infection. in-fection. 2. Cooperation on the part of the livestock owner. 3. Dependence on time-trid j measures having a scientific' basis. 4. Faith in the ability of the eradication forces. |