Abstrakt

Foot and Mouth Disease: An Economically Devastating Disease of the Livestock

Pankaj Kumar, Samir Kumar Barari, Manoj Kumar Tripathi, Rashmi Rekha Kumari, Manish Kumar

The foot and mouth disease (FMD) is one of the most important contagious viral disease of all cloven footed animals in our country. It causes huge economic losses annually due to its endemic nature; it leads to decreased milk production in lactating animals, abortion, decreased working capabilities of draught animals, death in young animals, thereby resulting in high cost-of treatment. FMD has high morbidity in cattle especially in exotic and cross bred cattle. Therefore, early intervention in control of FMD is very important. No specific treatment is available. Supportive therapy promotes early recovery. The Government FMD control program recommends vaccination at six monthly intervals for controlling the disease. However, as there are many subtypes of virus which cause the disease, management of FMD is difficult.