Foot and Mouth Disease

By the time FMD is controlled in 2001, 6,094,139 animals were slaughtered, and the disease cost

Great Britain an estimated £2.4-£4.1bn ($4.5-7.6 billion US dollars).

Mad Cow Disease

• Disease agent is a prion, or a protein bent out of shape

• Spread from feeding animals bone meal

• When found in US, many countries banned importation of US beef

• Human variant? Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Organophosphate Poisoning

• Deans/ Meijer Recall- 2002• Where: Meijer Stores

All Illinois StoresAll Indiana stores  

• What: The recall is due to possible contamination involving cows eating from a field sprayed with pesticides. Meijer, as a precaution to protect the public, is initiating its own recall.

• Who: Customers are asked not to drink the milk and return it to store for full refund. 

Monkey Pox

• Gambian rats on same shipment as prairie dogs • Rats gave Monkey pox to prairie dogs• Prairie dogs gave Monkey pox to humans• 37 confirmed cases nationwide, 7 in Indiana

Cute little prairie dog Not so cute little lesion

Disease transmission

• Animal to Animal

• Aerosol

• Fecal/Oral

• Fomites

• Zoonotic

• Vectors

Animal to Animal

• Like humans, animals get diseases from each other– Physical contact– Sharing food/water

sources– Sharing medical

equipment

Aerosol

• Pseudorabies virus can travel more than 2 mi. though air!

• Germs can float through air and can reach animals by:– Sick animals

sneezing, coughing, breathing on other animals

– Ventilation systems

Fecal/Oral

Chi Chi’s contaminated green onions ring a bell? 510 confirmed cases and 3

deaths by November 6, 2003!!!

Fomites

• Inanimate objects on which diseases can live

• Example- Your animal has a cold and coughs on your pencil

• The germs from your animal are now on the pencil

• Do you still want to chew on your pencil?

Zoonotic

• Diseases that can be passed from animal to human

• Examples-– Rabies– Club lamb fungus– Ringworm– Monkey pox– BSE????

Vectors

Infected animal Vector Healthy animal

3 aspects of Animal Biosecurity

• Traffic Control

• Sanitation

• Isolation

Traffic Control

• Minimize who comes on and off farm– Delivery trucks– Milk haulers– Wild animals

• OR… who comes into contact with animals– Neighbors– Protective clothing

Sanitation

• Keep it clean!– Animal stalls should

be cleaned– Vaccinate livestock– Personal hygiene-

washing hands!– Avoid handling sick

animals– Wear protective

clothing

Isolation

This is the opposite of isolation!

Isolation

• Keep new or show animals:– In an area totally separate from other

animals– A month is best– To make sure new/show animal is not

carrying a disease

Why care about Animal Biosecurity?

• Impact on human health

• Impact on animal health

• Economics

Human Health

• Safe food supply needed for healthy population

• Food supply an easy target• Not many people can produce

own food if US food supply compromised

Animal Health

• Sick animals=low production

• Mass death

Economics

• No meat/milk/cheese/eggs to sell means no profits

• Illness=fear ex.- BSE and importation of beef stopped

• Who HAS safe food can charge a bundle for it- organic or “grass fed beef” can =$6.00/lb