California recalls foot-and-mouth history

The last case of foot-and -mouth disease in the United States was in 1929

In this story: Outbreak could cost U.S. $14 billion Fighting the disease RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Frank Buckley
CNN National Correspondent

ONTARIO, California (CNN) -- Southern California was ground zero during the last outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the United States in 1929.

And today farmers in the dairy-producing Chino Valley hopes the devastating disease doesn't find its way there again.

"We're one cow away from a national disaster," said dairy farmer Neil Kasbergen.

ALSO New animal virus scares hit Ireland Texas officials to kill 21 cattle, test them for mad cow disease

At the Kasbergen farm in the Chino Valley farmers know that if only one cow is diagnosed with foot-and-mouth disease, the entire herd of 1,700 would likely be destroyed.

Kasbergen and rancher Case Devries have seen the effects of the disease before, in their native Netherlands in the 1930s.

"After a couple of days, the tongue is hanging out of the mouth and the blisters -- they got blisters in their mouth, they've got it around their teeth and the hoofs," Kasbergen said.

"The infection in the hoofs, it's not a pretty sight, and there's not much you can do, I mean, to alleviate the pain and the suffering," said the 74-year-old farmer.

As young boys, Kasbergen and Devries had to hand-feed milk cows suffering from foot-and-mouth disease.

"We made feed balls because the cow -- he couldn't eat and didn't give any milk anymore and it was a lot of work," said the 78-year-old Devries.

Outbreak could cost U.S. $14 billion

The disease is harmless to humans. But the two dairymen, who have seen what foot-and-mouth disease can do to animals, worry about their herds in California, where an outbreak could create an economic catastrophe totaling billions of dollars of damage.

The United States is better equipped to control foot-and-mouth disease than it was in 1929, according to Tilahun Yilma of the University of California-Davis' School of Veterinary Medicine. All carcasses are either burned or buried.

In the 1929 outbreak, more than 3,500 animals were herded into mass graves and shot

California is the nation's largest milk producer with more than 2,100 dairy farms and 1.5 million dairy cows. All that milk adds up to a $4 billion-a-year industry.

In 1929, when the last outbreak hit Southern California, 3,500 cows, pigs and goats were herded into mass graves and shot.

Four years earlier, an even larger outbreak led to the destruction of 110,000 farm animals and 22,000 deer.

"A dairy animal may have taken over 100 years to get that specific breed of milk-producing animal. And when all this has to be destroyed, it's not just the body of the animal -- the genetic selection that has gone into selecting that breed of animal is destroyed," Yilma said.

The cost of lost livestock in 1924 was more than $4 million.

The impact of a outbreak in California now would be almost $14 billion, according to a study by the University of California, Davis, Agricultural Issues Center in 1999.

Fighting the disease

Stopping the spread of the highly contagious disease would require intensive efforts like those undertaken to fight the outbreak in Europe, where the military has been enlisted to help slaughter infected animals in Britain.

But containment efforts would be made more difficult because of the layout of farms in certain areas of California.

"They're very contiguous; they're right next to each other," said Nathan Deboom of California Milk Producer's Council. "So when you get one outbreak, there's the very good possibility that the next dairy and the next one down the line -- so if we have one outbreak in this valley, you're looking at the whole valley potentially being affected."

Food and milk prices could be affected nationwide and quarantines could affect travel in California.

The European Union believes the United States has gone too far in banning all animal and meat imports from Europe. But the Bush administration refuses to exempt any part of Europe from the ban.

"Given the current situation, we are not prepared to lift any restrictions at this time," said Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Wednesday, noting the increasing number of cases reported in Europe.

Precautions have been stepped up at California's international airports to try to prevent the disease from entering the state. California's agriculture officials have also urged exhibitors at county fairs or other animal shows to prevent visitors from getting near or petting the animals.

But if there is an outbreak, U.S. agriculture officials believe their increased knowledge of the disease would help to limit its spread.

"We're much more capable in dealing with an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease now than we were in 1929," said Yilma.

Q&A: Foot-and-mouth vaccination
March 28, 2001
Europe turning to virus vaccine
March 28, 2001
British crisis team tackles virus
March 25, 2001
EU may tag all farm animals
March 23, 2001
Europe alarmed by spread of virus
March 13, 2001

Potential Impact of Foot-and-Mouth Disease in California
California Farm Bureau Federation
California Department of Food and Agriculture
United States Department of Agriculture

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.