Will animal disease invade the U.S.?

What exactly is foot-and-mouth disease?

Foot-and-mouth disease is a virus that affects all cloven-footed animals—sheep, pigs, goats, deer, cattle, etc. It causes fever, lesions on the mouth and nose, and excruciatingly painful blisters on the feet. Although it lasts only two to three weeks and rarely kills, the disease poses a serious threat to agricultural profits because contaminated animals produce less milk and lose weight, thus yielding less meat. Foot-and-mouth is extremely contagious: Nearly 100 percent of exposed animals become infected. That is why, even though the number of foot-and-mouth cases in Britain has barely exceeded 1,000, animals that are even suspected of being at risk are generally destroyed. Foot-and-mouth can be carried by air, water, and even via clothing.

And mad cow disease?

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

Mad cow disease—or BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy)—is a whole other story. For one thing it affects humans as well as sheep and cattle. It’s far more rare, but the consequences are far more severe. The disease causes progressive neurological damage leading to dementia, loss of motor control, and eventually death. Thankfully, it is much less communicable than foot-and-mouth. Scientists believe the damage is done by prions—mutated proteins that are drug-proof and heat-resistant. Prions kill brain cells, leaving tiny holes in the brain. Mad cow disease has spread, scientists believe, because of the now-banned practice of making animal feed from a mix of grains and brain or spinal cord tissue from infected animals.

How much damage has been done?

More than half a million farm animals have been slaughtered in Britain since Feb. 20, when the first case of foot-and-mouth was detected there, and an additional half million are marked for death. The disease has also been detected in Ireland, Holland, France, Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela. Mad cow disease has spread to 17 European countries since 1986, killing uncounted numbers of animals. So far, 90 people throughout Europe have died of the disease.

How could these diseases affect the U.S.?

If either disease took hold on this side of the Atlantic, the effects could be devastating. Economists believe that the current foot-and-mouth outbreak will cost Britain more than $13 billion in lost tourism and farming profits. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that here the cost would run into billions in the first year alone. Even if this country remains disease-free, we will feel an impact. Now that no one wants to buy European meat, demand for U.S. meat will rise both at home and abroad, pushing up prices on everything from steaks to such leather products as car seats. Moreover, the crisis in Europe is already affecting U.S. businesses with operations there. Earlier this year, European sales at McDonald’s fell by 10 percent.

What measures have been taken against these diseases?

Last month, the USDA banned all European meat imports. It has dispatched some 2,000 inspectors to about 100 airports and seaports, along with beagles to sniff out luggage for stashes of canned meat and other meat products. The inspectors have been using chlorine and detergent to disinfect the shoes of many visitors from Europe. The agency will hire an additional 400 employees this year and is expecting more funding to conduct research on the diseases. Across the Atlantic, Great Britain has enlisted about 1,500 veterinarians, 300 slaughter men, and 1,750 soldiers to get matters under control. The British have also discussed using a foot-and-mouth vaccine that has been approved for use in the Netherlands.

If there is a vaccine, why are livestock still being slaughtered?

Because the vaccine is not perfect. Inoculated animals can carry and spread the foot-and-mouth virus for up to two years. The vaccine is only effective for six to nine months, after which the animals must be given booster shots. Furthermore, animals can have foot-and-mouth for months before symptoms appear, so many contaminated animals could be passed over during vaccination. The vaccination successfully contained a 1989 outbreak of foot-and-mouth in Britain, but the procedure is thought to be too expensive and problematic to be effective at this point. (It is much cheaper to simply kill the animals and throw them on a bonfire or into a mass grave.) Mad cow disease has no known treatment or vaccine; eradication is the only method of preventing its spread.

How safe are we from infection?

The USDA, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and the Food and Drug Administration are confident about the effectiveness of present precautions. Despite a recent investigation into possible cases of mad cow among 400 sheep in Vermont, the disease has never been confirmed in this country. Foot-and-mouth disease has not been detected here since 1929. However, critics say the apparatus for dealing with a foot-and-mouth outbreak is rusty because the disease has been dormant for so long. For example, we only have 1 million to 2 million doses of readily accessible vaccine. Concerns also remain about unlikely sources of contamination. Some cosmetics and dietary supplements contain glandular material that may have been exposed to mad cow disease. And the practice that is thought to have started the present foot-and-mouth outbreak—the feeding of food scraps to hogs—is still legal in 33 states and Puerto Rico.

Falling dominoes

Attempts to contain animal diseases have led to changes in travel, trade, and dietary practices in Europe and the U.S.