Phillip Brown: First-hand experience with foot-and-mouth

Cows wait on a paddock to be checked for foot-and-mouth disease.

In May this year, I had the opportunity to travel to Nepal to do a week-long training session on foot-and-mouth disease.

I was part of a team of 13 New Zealand veterinarians who went on this training exercise, which was organised by Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI).

Two Te Awamutu vets were on the trip,including Krispin Kannan from Vet Ent.

The highlight of the course was a field trip to visit farms that had active foot-and-mouth disease. The farms were several hours drive away down on the plains, it was very hot, 37° and we had to dress up in biosecurity suits.

Foot-and-mouth disease is characterised by blisters in the mouth and on the feet.

The first farm we went to had six adult cows, a couple of calves and a few goats.

Most of the animals we saw had some blisters present but they were not as severe as we would have expected, possibly because this farm had vaccinated recently.

After spending some time at that farm we still had some more farms to visit so we spilt up. I went with a couple of MPI vets from Wellington. The farm we saw had seven cows in a dark shed, but now the temperature was thankfully cooling off.

On this farm the disease was much more classic, large sores in the mouth and tongue and the skin between the feet was broken down. Some also had blisters on their teats.

We treated the animals with anti-inflammatories and foot sprays to prevent footrot.

The animals do eventually recover but they produce much less milk, and the disease is a major cost to the country in terms of reduced production and the cost of treatment.

Because the local farmers had very limited understanding of biosecurity, the disease had spread to several neighbouring farms.

The rapid spread of the disease is why it is so feared.

If the disease ever got to New Zealand it would devastate the economy. We would lose our ability to export animal products.

Stringent measures are in place at the border to prevent it from entering. This does make the risk of the disease getting here low but there is a still a possibility it could slip in.

The key to controlling the disease is rapid detection in order to control it before it spreads to other farms.

As the name suggests the animals present with sores on their feet and in their mouths.

They are often salivating and have a massive milk drop and a high temperature.

MPI has a hotline if you suspect foot-and-mouth or any other exotic disease 0800 80 99 66. MPI would rather attend a thousand negative cases than miss the real thing it if ever got here.