These blisters swell and break, leaving raw tissue that is so painful that infected animals generally refuse to eat or drink and show signs of lameness. Severe weight loss usually follows, and in dairy cows, a severe drop in milk production commonly occurs. Affected dairy cattle can appear to be normal and will continue to eat about half of their feed intake. The clinical signs of vesicular stomatitis are also similar to those of swine vesicular disease and vesicular exanthema of swine, other foreign animal diseases. The only way to tell these diseases apart is through laboratory tests.
Vesicular stomatitis is recognized internationally as a reportable disease.
Exports of U.S. livestock and animal products would be restricted if vesicular stomatitis were allowed to spread in this country. Epidemiology Vesicular stomatitis has been confirmed only in North and South America. It is known to be an endemic disease in the warmer regions of the Western Hemisphere, but outbreaks of the disease occasionally occur in temperate geographic areas. One type of vesicular stomatitis virus is known to be spread by phlebotomine sandflies. Once introduced into a herd, the disease apparently moves from animal to animal by contact or exposure to saliva or fluid from ruptured lesions.