Foot and mouth disease is detected once again.

The viral disease has been positively identified on a farm near Guildford in Surrey. The strain of the virus is the same strain used by Institute for Animal Health at Pirbright and the private company Meriel for the production of vaccines used by farmers to fight the disease in livestock.

What is foot and mouth disease?

Foot and Mouth is a disease affecting mostly cloven hoofed animals such as cows, sheep, pigs and goats but has been seen in deer as well. It is characterised by blisters of the hoofs and mouths, sudden pain of hoofs and reluctance to move, and even lameness. There are several strains of virus believed to cause the disease. They are transmitted, in most instances, by direct contact with the contaminated fluid from the sores/blisters and possibly from contaminated feed. There are suggestions of possible airborne transmission as well leading to restrictions of movement of animals.

It has serious implications for animal health and for the economics of the livestock industry, but the government says it is NOT a public health concern.

In fact, the only suspected link to human infection in Britain was in the case of Bobby Brewis in Northumberland in 1966. Mr Brewis was a machinery salesman who lived on a farm with his brother where the outbreak occurred. It is reported that he had little contact with the livestock and it was speculated that he was contaminated by drinking infected milk on the farm.

Whilst Mr Brewis suffered blisters to the palms of his hands and developed a sore throat and mild fever, doctors at the time were not certain of any link between the diseased livestock and the patient. The symptoms were eventually resolved and Mr Brewis suffered no lasting ill effects of his illness.

It is possible that the patient was infected with hand, foot and mouth disease which is a similar type of viral infection found in humans, with a similar name and a few symptoms in common, such as blisters of the hands and fever. However, this disease is caused by a totally different virus, namely the coxsackie A virus associated with cold sores, chicken pox and a condition of the mouth known as herpangina and is in no way linked to the disease in livestock.

It is always better to prevent an illness rather than to treat it and so below, MyHealthPortal has put together some guidelines to help do this.

1. Always wash your hands after each visit to the toilet and before handling or preparing food.
2. Cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze.
3. Do not kiss any one with sores on their mouth.
4. Limit contact with people diagnosed with viral infections and avoid contact with your eyes and face until you have washed your hands thoroughly.
5. Advise pregnant women, where possible, to keep away from infected people as soon as a virus is diagnosed.
6. Stay away from diseased farm animals.