The roast beef of Old England doesn t look so appetizing nowadays. An outbreak of foot and mouth disease was diagnosed two weeks ago on some English farms. The disease is transmitted by a virus, the aphthovirus, which belongs to the same family as the rhinoviruses that cause the common cold in humans. It is lethal to cloven-hoof animals like cattle, sheep, pigs and goats. They develop sores on, of course, their feet and mouths, then sicken and die quickly as the heart muscle is affected.
Humans can catch foot and mouth, but the results are mild in our species.
Foot and mouth disease is not a public health disaster, it is an economic disaster for farmers. Like those rhinoviruses, the aphthovirus is transmitted very easily. It can actually survive and travel on airborne particles, up to 40 miles overland and further across the sea. All these measures are now being taken in Britain. 14,000 animals have already been slaughtered and 60,000 more are under death sentence.