Duane Dailey, with the University of Missouri Extension Service, said Missouri is among Midwestern states doing a similar review of state emergency powers. You'd better believe it's a national problem. It quickly spread throughout the United Kingdom, to neighboring Ireland, and to France and the Netherlands. While it appears to be coming under control in the U.K., the disease is expanding in parts of Asia, and an apparently unrelated outbreak has hit beef herds in Argentina. That outbreak spread this past week to Uruguay.
Humans are susceptible to a similarly named but unrelated disease.
But the virus is easily carried and spread by people and vehicles. It is the latter threat that has prompted European authorities to effectively declare martial law in certain areas, restricting people to their farms and keeping people away from affected areas until animal health officials have declared the area free of the disease. A check with people in affected countries or near the European outbreak shows the sensitivities the restrictions on personal liberties can cause. In Japan, Keiichi Maruyama, who operates a beef cattle farm on the north island of Hokkaido, said two beef cows on two separate farms got the disease a year ago. The herds were quickly killed, and animals from those two areas were quarantined on their farms before being certified as disease-free by veterinarians.