Information About

Vesicular Stomatitis

for the Beef Producer

What Is Vesicular Stomatitis?

Vesicular stomatitis is a sporadic, reemerging

viral disease characterized by vesicular lesions on

the tongue, oral mucosa, teats, or coronary bands of

cattle, horses, and swine. The disease also affects

sheep and goats. Many species of wild animals,

including deer, bobcats, goats, raccoons, and 

monkeys, are also susceptible. People who handle

infected animals also can become infected with 

vesicular stomatitis.

Vesicular stomatitis is most likely to occur during

warm months in the Southwest, particularly along

riverways and in valleys. The Southwestern United

States experienced a vesicular stomatitis outbreak

from May 1998 through January 1999.

Aside from its economic impact, vesicular 

stomatitis is significant because its outward signs are

similar to (although generally less severe than) those

of foot-and-mouth disease, a devastating foreign 

disease of cloven–hoofed animals that was 

eradicated from the United States in 1929. The only

way to diagnose and differentiate these diseases is

through laboratory tests.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA)

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)

works to keep vesicular stomatitis from becoming

established in the United States because of its 

similarity to other diseases of concern, its negative

impact on livestock production, and its public health

implications. Vesicular stomatitis is a disease that

must be reported to the international animal health

community when an outbreak is discovered.

Individual countries may then take steps to restrict

imports of U.S. livestock during outbreaks. Exports

would be restricted to an even greater extent if 

vesicular stomatitis were allowed to spread in this

country.

How Is This Virus Transmitted?

Vesicular stomatitis has been confirmed only in

North, Central, and South America. The disease is

endemic in the warmer regions of the Western

Hemisphere, but sporadic outbreaks occur in temperate geographic areas.

How vesicular stomatitis spreads is not fully

known; insect vectors, mechanical transmission, and

movement of animals may be responsible. Once

introduced into a herd, the disease apparently moves

from animal to animal by contact or exposure to 

saliva or fluid from ruptured blisters.

What Are the Clinical Signs?

The incubation period for vesicular stomatitis

ranges from 2 to 8 days. Fever can occur immediately

before or at the same time lesions first appear but is

of short duration and thus is rarely detected. The

most common clinical sign in cattle is drooling or

frothing at the mouth. Infected animals suffer from

blisterlike lesions in the mouth and on the dental pad,

tongue, lips, nostrils, hooves, and teats. Mouth

lesions can be so painful that infected animals 

generally refuse to eat or drink. Infected animals 

usually experience severe weight loss.

Cows with painful teat lesions may refuse to

nurse, resulting in early weaning. Foot lesions cause

lameness in less than 5 percent of infected cattle.

Vesicular stomatitis generally does not cause animals

to die.

The number of infected cattle in a herd varies.

Five to 10 percent of animals within an infected herd

show clinical signs, and up to 80 percent of the 

animals in a herd may become infected. If there are

no complications, such as secondary infections,

infected animals recover in about 2 weeks. However,

the ulcers may take up to 2 months to heal, and 

healing animals may still spread the disease.

What Is the Human Health Risk?

People who handle an infected animal can 

contract vesicular stomatitis if they fail to follow 

proper biosafety methods. In humans, vesicular 

stomatitis causes an acute influenzalike illness with

symptoms such as fever, muscle aches, headaches,

and malaise. Vesicular lesions are rare in humans.

Prevalence in humans may be underreported

because the disease often goes undetected or is 

misdiagnosed. People who handle potentially infected

cattle should wear gloves to protect their hands and

should not allow saliva and blister fluids to come in

contact with open wounds or with their mucous 

membranes, such as the membranes in their eyes or

mouth. Producers and other individuals who handle

cattle and experience symptoms should contact their

physician immediately.

Factsheet

Veterinary Services November 2002

APHIS
What Are the Economic Impacts of

Vesicular Stomatitis?

Little information is available on the economic

impact of vesicular stomatitis in beef herds, but the

greatest impact appears to be on calves with low market weights because they were weaned early from

cows with painful teat lesions. Calves may be 50 to

100 pounds underweight depending on supplementation and the age they were weaned. However, these

calves regain healthy weights when they start to eat

and drink again. In an effort to more accurately

assess the financial impact vesicular stomatitis can

have on beef herds, New Mexican beef cattle owners

were surveyed about the 1995 summer and fall 

outbreak in the Western United States. The results

indicated that the estimated loss for each infected 

animal was $53; two-thirds of this amount was for

increased labor costs.

How Can You Reduce Economic Losses?

When a beef herd becomes infected, producers

can reduce economic losses by implementing 

management practices that will minimize the spread

of the disease to susceptible herdmates and by 

effectively treating infected animals. Producers also

should take precautions to prevent human infection.

How Can You Prevent Vesicular Stomatitis

Infection?

Facilities and Equipment—Vesicular stomatitis

can spread rapidly within a herd through direct 

contact between animals, common feed and water

troughs, insects, and inanimate objects that can 

harbor the virus (fomites), including feeding 

equipment and bedding. Use the following measures

to keep your facility and equipment clean:

• Clean and sanitize feed bunks and water 

sources daily.

• Use different boots or disinfectant footbaths 

when moving between clean and infected 

areas. Phenolic- and halogen-based 

disinfectants work best (see the tabulation 

under the section “Effective Disinfectants”).

Sunlight and heat also destroy the virus 

quickly.

• Clean and sanitize feeding and cleaning 

equipment before using with healthy animals.

• Implement a vector control program for 

animals and your facility.

• Maintain ground surface conditions that 

minimize the risk of foot injuries in cattle. Foot 

skin integrity can be enhanced by routine 

bathing in antiseptic solutions.

Feed—Cattle should be fed high-quality forage

and soft grains to reduce mouth injuries. Place 

concentrates in a clean bunk on top of hay or silage.

Compost, ferment, or burn leftover feed daily. To 

prevent oral abrasions supplement the food of weaned

calves with highly palatable creep feeds that have a

minimum of rough, coarse material.

Treatment—Producers should implement treatments to reduce secondary bacterial infection and

promote healing. Supportive care, such as adding

high-energy liquid gruel feed or electrolytes to the

water supply, is the single most important treatment.

Consult a veterinarian about lesions to treat.

Uncomplicated oral ulcers usually heal in 2 weeks,

and cows are back on feed within 7 days of showing

clinical signs. To hasten healing of infected animals,

implement the following treatments:

• Swab oral ulcers with a 1 to 2 percent 

solution of Lugol’s iodine and oral and 

injectable antibiotics, and observe appropriate 

antibiotic withdrawal periods.

• Spray foot ulcers twice daily with a saturated 

solution of copper sulfate.

• Treat teat ulcers with a spray solution of 

antibiotics and an antiinflammatory drug.

Adding Cattle to a Herd—Cattle that are already

infected with vesicular stomatitis or that have been in

contact with infected animals can introduce the 

disease into healthy beef herds. Producers should

ascertain that new cattle come from sources that have

not had animals with clinical signs of vesicular 

stomatitis in the past 3 months. Producers should 

isolate newly arrived cattle and calves from the rest of

the herd for at least 21 days because infected animals

often do not show clinical signs. The isolation area is

ideally offsite and as far away from the main herd as

feasible.

Producers should take similar precautions to

avoid reintroducing vesicular stomatitis into a herd

that has just recovered from the disease. Cattle can

become reinfected with the virus after only a few

weeks.

Animal Movements—Intermingling infected and

healthy animals may contribute to the spread of 

vesicular stomatitis. Producers should take the 

following precautions in limiting animal movement:

• Isolate infected animals and maintain them in 

an area physically removed from other cattle 

as soon as signs appear.

• Minimize interpen movement of all animals.

• Isolate dead animals for pickup by a salvage 

truck.

• Spray carcasses around the mouth, teats, and 

feet with disinfectant and treat them with 

insecticide.

• Avoid putting cattle into contact with livestock 

and other animals, such as dogs, cats, 

rodents, birds, and insects. The same rules 

apply here as for isolating new herd additions 

from the main herd. The goal is to minimize or 

prevent the entrance of any potential 

biological or mechanical vector of vesicular 

stomatitis into beef herds.
Controlling Insects—Preventive activities should

incorporate insect controls because insects are

thought to be vectors. Consult your veterinarian for

advice on selecting an insecticide approved for use

with beef cattle. In addition to animal and premises

treatment, eliminate habitats favorable to insect 

survival. For example, screen the windows of all 

buildings where animals are housed, and eliminate

standing water and objects that attract insects.

Mechanical Transmission—Scientists suspect

that the vesicular stomatitis virus is transmitted also

by people or inanimate objects such as feeding or

cleaning utensils and health-care equipment (needles,

nose tongs, etc.). Producers should take precautions

to avoid transfering equipment and personnel

between isolates and the main herd. Use separate

sets of equipment for each group wherever possible. If

equipment is shared, clean and disinfect it thoroughly

between uses at different beef facilities. Also, clean

and disinfect feed bunks and water sources daily.

Personnel should shower and change clothing and

boots when moving between isolates and the main

herd. If production logistics permit, care for isolated

animals after the main herd to avoid cross-contamination.

Keep service personnel and other visitors entering

the premises to an absolute minimum. Again, require

showers and clothes changes for these personnel. If

possible, prevent feed, delivery, supplies, and other

trucks from directly entering the unit. Ask drivers if

they have visited other beef facilities and if they have

taken appropriate cleaning and disinfecting 

precautions. Service personnel often visit multiple

beef operations on any given day, and they and their

vehicles, shoes, clothing, and equipment represent a

potential source of disease transmission.

Farm vehicles that are used for transporting cattle

to slaughter or that are driven to places where other

cattle-hauling trucks and producers congregate should

be cleaned and disinfected. Drivers of these vehicles

should change contaminated clothing before returning

to their home base.

For footbaths and disinfection of facilities and

equipment, phenolic- and halogen-based disinfectants

work best. Sunlight and heat also destroy the virus

quickly.

Effective Disinfectants—The following table

shows disinfectants found to be effective in 

inactivating the vesicular stomatitis virus when used

for 10 minutes.

Disinfectant Concentration

Chlorine bleach 0.645 percent

Wescodynetm 4 percent

Cresylic acids 1 percent

Roccaltm 1:200

Septisoltm 1:50

Vaccination—Vesicular stomatitis vaccines for cattle

have been available intermittently during outbreak

years. However, little information is known about their 

efficacy in preventing infection, reducing clinical signs

associated with infection, or lessening the economic

impact of infection. Check with your State

Veterinarian’s office for information on the availability

of vaccines and permits that may be required.

What Is the Impact of Vesicular Stomatitis

on Reproduction?

Vesicular stomatitis seems to have no direct

impact on reproduction. The virus is not known to

cause abortion or fetal resorption. If infected cows

become debilitated, they may experience delayed

uterine involution and subsequent delays in the

resumption of normal estrous cycles after calving.

Producers do not need to alter reproduction 

management practices during an outbreak except to

make sure that the artificial insemination technician

does not spread the disease through mechanical

transmission. There is no evidence to suggest that the

virus can spread by artificial insemination or rectal

palpation other than through contaminated equipment.

Should Other Health-Management

Programs Be Altered During an

Outbreak?

Producers should take measures to minimize the

risk of spreading vesicular stomatitis through infected

animals’ saliva and blister fluids. Temporarily 

eliminating procedures involving the head and feet,

such as dehorning and foot trimming, should be 

considered. Delaying practices such as tattooing, 

vaccination (especially intranasal), removal of 

dewclaws or extra teats, administration of magnets,

and eartagging may help prevent the spread of the

disease to herdmates.

Because cattle with vesicular stomatitis may congregate around salt and mineral feeders, temporarily

restricting an infected herd’s access to them may be

wise. Cattle’s excessive salivation may cause these

feeders to transfer the virus to other animals.

Insect control also can help prevent the spread of

vesicular stomatitis. In addition to using eartags, dust

bags, or sprays on the animals themselves, environmental sprays may reduce the local insect population.

Eliminate or avoid prime insect habitats. Another suggestion is to avoid letting cattle graze in low-lying

areas near water where insects are prevalent, 

especially early in the morning and late in the 

afternoon.
Report Suspicious Cases

Vesicular stomatitis infection in a beef herd can

cause significant financial losses. Implementing

appropriate, recommended management practices

and working closely with your veterinarian can reduce

the losses. Veterinarians and livestock owners who

suspect an animal may have vesicular stomatitis or

any other vesicular disease should immediately 

contact State or Federal animal health authorities.

Additional Information

For additional information, contact

USDA, APHIS, Veterinary Services

Emergency Programs4700 River Road, Unit 41

Riverdale, MD 20737-1231

Telephone (301) 734-8073 Fax (301) 734-7817 or 

visit our Web site at www.aphis.usda.gov/vs.

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United States Department of Agriculture • Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service • Safeguarding American Agriculture