Foot And Mouth Disease

Foot and mouth is a highly contagious virus affecting cloven-hoofed animals. Susceptible animals include cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, pigs, antelope, deer and bison. It has also been known to infect hedgehogs, elephants, llamas and alpacas may develop mild symptoms, but are resistant to the disease and do not pass it on to others of the same species. In laboratory experiments, mice, rats and chickens have been artificially infected, but they are not believed to contract the disease under natural conditions.  The virus causes lesions and severe production drops, but it is not a food safety risk for humans. It remains one of the most serious threats to livestock health in South Africa and worldwide. While the virus can survive in meat, dairy, and contaminated products, it does not affect people and poses no human health threat. 

Key Details Regarding FMD and meat/tallow:

• Human Safety: FMD is not transmissible to humans through the consumption of meat or dairy products as the disease is not a zoonotic risk (cannot be passed to humans). 
• Viral Survival in Meat: The FMD virus can survive in frozen, chilled, or freeze-dried meat, as well as in lymph nodes and bone marrow. It is inactivated by cooking to a core temperature of 70°C for at least 30 minutes.

Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) has a direct and severe impact on livestock health, welfare, and productivity. Once animals are infected, the consequences can be long-lasting, causing painful blisters on the mouth, tongue, and hooves, lameness and mastitis. Herd performance declines, requiring additional resources for recovery.
Milk production drops and weight gain in beef cattle slows. The result often is that farmers are forced to cull infected animals to stop further spread.

Foot and Mouth Disease is highly contagious, and its rapid spread makes it one of the most difficult livestock diseases to control. 

Like other RNA viruses, the FMD virus is genetically highly variable, which limits the effectiveness of a vaccination.
Controlling the virus with vaccines is difficult because there are multiple serotypes of the virus which require distinct vaccines.

• Reasons for restricting export from countries using FMD vaccines include:
• Routine blood tests relying on antibodies cannot distinguish between an infected and a vaccinated animal - which severely hampers screening of animals used in export products, risking a spread of the virus.
• A widespread preventive vaccination would also conceal the existence of the virus in a country.
• An animal infected shortly after being vaccinated can harbor and spread FMD without showing symptoms itself, hindering containment and culling of sick animals.
• European countries noted the issues with vaccination and the importance of regaining FMD-free status to resume trade.

In 2001, a serious outbreak in Britain, resulted in the slaughter of many animals, the postponing of the general election for a month, and the cancellation of the Isle Of Man TT.

Great Britain's response to the 2001 outbreak of foot and mouth disease was a controversial policy - culling all animals within 3 km of an infected farm within 48 hours, leading to the slaughter of over 4 million animals. This was stated to be "a response to a desperate situation, not a pre-meditated response to a known, assessed risk". 

Culling has been a very controversial measure among society, given its drastic nature and the psychological effects it has on farmers. Farmers, especially in more traditional systems, may also have emotional attachments to some of the animals.

Financial implications to farmers and the market is devastating causing domestic prices to fluctuate as supply is disrupted. International trade restrictions, quarantine measures, and animal culling also play a big role. Consumers may also shift their buying behaviour due to safety concerns.

Controlling Foot and Mouth Disease requires a combination of strong biosecurity, rapid response, and long-term prevention strategies like quarantine & movement control, on-farm biosecurity, traceability systems etc.

Through consistent application of these measures, the livestock sector can significantly reduce the risk of foot and mouth disease outbreaks and protect both animal health and farmer livelihoods.

For extra piece if mind - our rendering process involves high-heat purification that naturally eliminates pathogens.

FYI: FMD is not the same as hand-foot-and-mouth disease which is a common disease in young children.