Burning livestock necessary evil of foot-and-mouth outbreak

Cars coming into Spain from France must cross a pad soaked with disinfectant, which a worker pours on Friday

By David George
CNN Correspondent

The pictures have become familiar to television viewers all over the world: Plumes of smoke rise from the pyres of cattle, pigs and other animals slaughtered in the European Union's desperate attempt to contain a fast-spreading outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

The United Kingdom and France will have destroyed upwards of 300,000 animals by month's end.

Foot-and-mouth is aptly named. It causes blisters on the mouths and feet of infected animals. The victims don't die, but become stunted. Females stop giving milk and animals of both sexes stop growing for about three weeks.

In the low-margin world of agriculture, three weeks can make the difference between black ink and red ink for the farmer.

"In any country with an industrialized system of agriculture, three weeks of lost production is all it takes to wipe out profits," says Dr. Corrie Brown, who has studied foot-and-mouth disease all over the world as a veterinary medicine professor at the University of Georgia in the United States.

CORRECTION A reference in an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that foot-and-mouth disease had been reported or suspected in Australia and New Zealand. CNN regrets the error.    VIDEO There is a vaccine that prevents the spread of foot-and-mouth disease. CNN's David George explains why it's not used Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

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MESSAGE BOARD Foot-and-mouth disease

There is a vaccine against foot-and-mouth disease, but it's not much use as preventive medicine, Brown says.

"It's used in outbreak situations to create a sort of fire wall around the outbreak," she explains. "The problem is that once you use the vaccine you can't distinguish which animals have had the disease and which animals have been vaccinated."

For that reason, Brown says, even vaccinated animals are destroyed once the outbreak is contained. Any country where animals have been vaccinated and allowed to live loses its status as a foot-and-mouth disease-free nation.

"No country would trade with us knowing we had serologically positive animals, because it would mean we would have no system for detecting an outbreak," Brown says. Slaughtering infected animals and burning the carcasses is "the only way to contain the outbreak."

The United States hasn't seen a case of foot-and-mouth since 1929, thanks largely to vigilant government inspectors and a system that requires travelers to inform customs authorities if they have been on a farm or ranch outside the country.

Foot-and-mouth disease is extremely contagious and can be carried from place to place on shoes, clothing, car tires, and even the feet of domestic animals.

Brown worries that the United States could face a foot-and-mouth outbreak in the future. It's not a matter of "if," she says, but "when."

If it happens, a foot-and-mouth epidemic could be devastating.

"We figure that an outbreak that's spread to any extent would probably cost $2 billion to clean up and probably $20 billion in lost trade," Brown warns.

She says 17 percent of America's jobs are related in some way to agriculture. "It's $860 billion in exports. To put a big dent in that would have reverberating effects through the economy."

Although most media have focused on Europe, foot-and-mouth disease has quickly blossomed into a worldwide problem.

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Foot-and-Mouth Disease
Disease information : foot-and-mouth disease (MAFF, UK)
British Tourist Authority:
Office International des Epizooties

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