This includes cattle, pigs, deer, elk, sheep, goats, llamas, wild boar and pot-bellied pigs. Horses, donkeys and mules are not affected but can carry the disease. Humans are rarely affected, and if they are, experience mild cold-like symptoms. Foot and Mouth Disease causes blisters in and around the mouth and around the hooves of affected animals. While animals rarely die from the disease, they stop eating, are lame and very ill.
Dairy cows stop producing milk.
Meat animals stop growing and are not fit for slaughter. Foot and Mouth Disease is extremely difficult to control once it occurs. The disease spreads very quickly within farms and between farms, often in a matter of hours. Control involves slaughtering large numbers of livestock, closing roads in affected areas, and stopping all sale and movement of livestock. Movement of people in infected areas is also stopped.