Foot-and-mouth disease(FMD)

The pathogen is a virus in the genus Aphthavirus in the family Picornaviridae. Aphtha is the Greek word for mouth blisters. It occurs in cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and deer with split hooves. Viruses of the family Aphthavirus of the genus Picornaviridae are the pathogens. Aphtha is the Greek word for blisters in the mouth. It occurs in cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and deer with split hooves.

Clinical Symptoms

Foot-and-mouth disease is very infectious and can be transmitted by wind to farms up to 60 kilometers away on humid days. When the virus enters a farm, after an incubation period of three to five days, the first symptoms are decreased feed intake and a high fever of up to 40.5°C.

In young piglets, mortality can be nearly 100% due to high fever and heart failure. The main symptoms are crouching and immobility in the stall, blisters on the hooves and hoof flaking, and a limp due to pain. In the early stages of the disease, the blisters are not visible and look as if they have been soaked in water, then develop into blisters. When the vesicles burst, bleeding can be observed at the site of the missing hoof, and the horse has difficulty standing.

Clinical signs include blisters on the tongue, nose, and teats, which may be small at first and gradually grow to more than 3 centimeters in diameter. Within 24 hours of being caught, the blisters will burst, leaving a crusted wound.

Diagnosis

For early diagnosis of foot-and-mouth disease, a fenceline test was developed and used during the 2002 swine fever outbreak, and overseas, real-time gene amplification (Realtime-PCR) is mainly used for quick and accurate diagnosis. In the case of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in 2010, measures utilizing culling and vaccination were implemented, and a foot-and-mouth disease vaccine has been implemented to date.

Since the protein part of 3ABC is removed from the foot-and-mouth disease vaccine, it can be used in ELISA to differentiate between vaccine-induced antibody production and cases caused by outdoor infection.

Prevention and treatment

If suspected symptoms of foot-and-mouth disease are detected, it is imperative to report them immediately to the city, county, or district office or the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Quarantine Center to stop the spread of the disease. There is no cure for foot-and-mouth disease, and in order to maintain a clean country, Korea has switched from a culling policy to a vaccination policy. For the foot-and-mouth disease vaccine, two doses are administered around 40 and 60 days. It is recommended that the vaccine be administered after raising the temperature to lukewarm to reduce the vaccination reaction.

Domestic outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease have been mainly caused by people entering the country from countries with foot-and-mouth disease, and livestock officials must follow quarantine procedures when entering the country and disinfect at the port of entry. To prevent the introduction of foot-and-mouth disease into the country, people should avoid traveling to foot-and-mouth disease-affected countries and refrain from visiting domestic farms for at least one to two weeks.

For effective disinfection of foot-and-mouth disease, the recommended disinfectant labeled by the Korea Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Service The dilution factor labeled on the recommended disinfectant should be observed, and caution should be taken when using two disinfectants in combination. should be used. For example, it is not advisable to sprinkle quicklime on the road and spray disinfect with an acidic disinfectant. unprofessional.

It is especially important to note that when hiring foreign workers as laborers, viruses contaminated with meat, blood, clothing, etc. There is a possibility that viruses contaminated with meat, blood, or clothing can be transmitted to the farm, so it is necessary to start farm management after living outside the farm for a period of time.