Evening journal., 1914-11-18
The Association .
WEDNESDAY NOV. Is 1914,
FOOT.AND.MOUTH DISEASE.

TN view Of the outbreak Of foot-and-mouth disease in
Il this county and on the Eastern Shore OF Maryland
account. taken from The Journal Of the American
Medical Association of the principal features of the
disease may be OF interest 1t is acute, highly in
fectious disease which occurs chiefly in cattle sheep
goats and swine though other animals such the
horse and dog well certain wild animals are at
tackled Also and IL may affect human beings In ami
mails II is characterized especially by eruption in the
mouth and on the feet, in some species more in the
mouth. in others the feet In cattle the in
cubation period averages from three TO FIVE days,
whereupon moderate fever with loss of appetite and
other general symptoms set in. In two or three days
small blisers appear the lining of the mouth and
the fever usually subsidies. AT the same time one
OF feet may show tenderness swelling of tho
skin soon bsters here Also and the animal goes
lame. In the mouth the blisters may reach half
inch in diameter. but usually they smaller
the contents at first clear become turbid and as the
covering bursts small painful spots produced
which either heal quite promptly turn into ulcers
that heal slowly. Usually the milk is altered
reduced in quantity blisters and ulcers form
on the udder There is marked loss of weight as
the animals do not eat because Of the pain. In this
the ordinary FORM in which the death-rate is very
small except among the young the symptoms fade
away in from ten to twenty days or so, except when
local infections delay recovery, but there also Sc
we're forms with extensive infection which frequently
end in sudden death In such severe cases ulcers
are found in the stomach and intestines. In sheep
and swine, LESSONS Of the feet predominant.
The cause of the disease is present in the contents
OF the vescles. the discharges from the ulcers the
saliva. the milk the urine and feces, but rule not
after the tenth day It is stated that animals having
had the disease may carry the virus for months Any
susceptible species may infect any other susceptible
species Infection not only through direct
tact also indirectly the virus retains its vru
lence for some little time at least outside the body.
Contamination OF fodder of stalls, of feeding and
drinking troughs of milk and milk products and Of
the hands and cothes of drovers to spread the
disease which often travels over wide stretches of
country with remarkable rapdity shown by the
present outbreak AS from 25 to so per cent of the
rattle exposed TO infection may become sick, there
results great loss from fall in the production of milk
from reduction OF vitality and fecundity and from
deaths well account Of the measures adopted
to stamp out the disease.
The immunity produced by an attack seems TO be
feeble as animals said to suffer sometimes more
than one attack within short time SO far prac-
teal method Of protective noculaon has been devel
oped.
Our knowledge Of the cause Of foot-and-mouth dis.
is limited the fact that it ilterabls
virus yet invisible ard incultivabe II in 1897
that Lo1ler and Frosch made their classical expert.
ment showing that the disease is caused by livine
that passes filters that do not permit bacteria tC
60 through, experiment that has served a mode
for all the subsequent work the many other forms
virus may remain active for months If kept cool and
moist but Is destroyed rapidly by drying, by heat
so c. GAO F) and above. by formaldehyd and by car
bolic acid The wide range of v;ruence of this vru
among animal species has been indicated and stated
the disease may effect human beings, especially chill
dren. being transmitted by milk from diseased cow
(experimentally verihed) and by butter and chess
made from such milk well through wounds ant
in other ways. While the course usually in favorable
epidemic described by Siegel had mortality o
per cent The manifestations fever. digestiv
disturbances and eruption the lips and sometime
the skin Where there is danger of contamination
of the milk with the foot-and-mouth virus thoroug
pssteurzation of all milk and milk products is donbl
Indicated
Governor Miller and his associate State official
and those Federal officials who cooperating wit
them to eradicate the disease in this State deser,
ing Of all possible public encouragement and coopers
ton From no is such cooperation earnestl
desired and deserved than the farmers in all thre
counties