Foot and mouth disease -- We have it here all the time

Foot and mouth disease -- We have it here all the time
PALLAVA BAGLA

NEW DELHI, MARCH 8: India, with over a thousand outbreaks of the highly contagious foot and mouth disease (FMD) annually, could well be the nursery for the evolution of new strains of this disease that's rampaging across cattle populations in Great Britain claim some European scientists.

Today, Europe is in the grip of another cattle-related scare -- first it was the Mad Cow Disease and now it is the FMD. Because of the huge public uproar, thousands of sheep and cattle are being incinerated in Great Britain for having had a brush with FMD.

Why is India, which has a livestock population of 500 million, decidedly cool about the repeated outbreaks of FMD on its soil? There are already murmurs in veterinary circles that the strain of virus responsible for the current outbreak in Britain originated in India way back in 1990. A recent report in the British journal, Veterinary Record, hints that the current virus reached the islands after a decade-long spread across the Middle East, Asia and the southern tip of Africa.

Though Indian scientists vehemently question the veracity of this claim, what cannot be denied is that India is constantly under attack from this disease which afflicts animals that have cleft hooves. Even wild populations of Gaur and deer have had epidemics in the past. During the first nine months of 1999, over 1000 outbreaks of FMD occurred in India and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, says it's ``rampant'' in the country.

``India has learnt to live with FMD,'' says Dr M P Yadav, Director of theIndian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Izzatnagar. He says it inflicts ``heavy economic losses'' and the country is unable to export meat and milkproducts to western countries which want these to carry the certificate of having been grown in FMD-free farms. ``There is, however, no cause for panic since India has an active programme for vaccinating farm animals against FMD,'' he says.

The Europeans nations are alarmed, says Yadav, since they had been declared free of FMD and this re-emergence can wreak heavy losses on their lucrative dairy industry.

According to statistics available with the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying of the Ministry of Agriculture, between January and September 1999 about 40,000 animals were afflicted by FMD. Of these, a little over 800 died. The country carried out 40 million vaccinations in 1998-99 to keep the disease under check.

The IVRI Director says ``local Indian breeds are more or less resistant to FMD and in them the affliction is not fatal. On the other hand, imported farmanimals and cross-breeds are most susceptible to FMD in India.'' When an animal contracts FMD, small ulcers appear in the mouth and on the feet of the diseased animal. The animal also suffers from high fever and is unable to eat properly.

The disease is caused by a virus which is very contagious and can be transmitted even through air though the most common form of transmission is by contact with infected animals. FMD does not infect humans.

Yadav believes the most likely cause for the epidemic in Europe is an ``infected meat pie'' from Asia which somehow came in touch with sheep in Britain.

Yadav says the FMD virus causing the epidemic in Europe is of the sub-type O (one of the seven sub-types) which is most common in India and China. He says these doubts can be cleared only once the virus has been fully fingerprinted and matched with the one found in India. He points out that more often than not there is more than mere science that comes into play in these situations since many western nations don't want India to compete in the world meat market.

A special hi-tech laboratory has been set up in Bhopal to certify products as being disease-free. India plans to rid the country of FMD by 2010 through a very active programme of vaccinating the livestock. Meanwhile, four smaller zones have been identified which will be declared free of FMD much sooner in the hope of meeting the international demand in the lucrative dairy products market.