428 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



sometimes on udder, teats and escutcheon. The vesicles rupture, 

 forming erosions and ulcerations; there is also salivation, tender- 

 ness of the affected parts, loss of appetite, lameness, emaciation, 

 and diminution in the quantity of milk secreted. In some instances, 

 the horn tissues slip from the foot of the hog. The foot lesions are 

 most pronounced in hogs, the mouth lesions in cattle. 



The tremendous ravages of the disease are seen in the number 

 and variety of the species attacked. While it may be regarded as 

 essentially a disease of cattle, hogs are fully as susceptible. Sheep 

 and goats are apparently not as susceptible as cattle and hogs. 

 Horses, dogs, cats and even poultry, may occasionally carry the 

 infection. Man himself is not immune, and the frequency of his 

 infection by coming in contact with diseased animals is established 

 by numerous observations. 



The disease prevails in European countries and occasions great 

 economic losses. The disease has made its appearance in the 

 United States only on five different occasions — 1870, 1880, 1884, 

 1902-3, and 1908, but fortunately every outbreak upon American 

 soil has thus far been quickly followed by its complete eradication. 

 The United States through the Bureau of Animal Industry, work- 

 ing in co-operation with the authorities of various states, has never 

 failed to eradicate this disease. This cannot be said of any other 

 country in connection with the outbreaks of foot and mouth disease. 



The causative agent or germ of this disease has not been isolated 

 or identified. The specific principle may be found in the serum 

 of the vesicles in the mouth and on the feet and udder; in the 

 saliva, milk and various secretions and excretions; also in the 

 blood during the rise of the temperature. Animals may be in- 

 fected directly through the saliva, as by licking each other, and in 

 calves by sucking diseased cows, or indirectly by fomites such as 

 infected manure, hay, utensils, drinking troughs, railway cars, 

 animal markets, barnyards, and pastures. 



Foot and mouth disease is primarily and principally a disease of 

 cattle, sheep, goats and swine. The disease may be transmitted to 

 man, and especially to children, through the ingestion of raw milk 

 from a diseased cow. It is doubtful whether the disease can be 

 transmitted to man by cutaneous or subcutaneous inoculation, 

 though it is probable the infection may be communicated if the 

 virus directly enters the blood through wounds of any kind. Chil- 

 dren are not infrequently infected by drinking raw milk during 

 the periods in which the disease is prevalent in the neighborhood, 



