Updated ANZFA facts about Foot and Mouth Disease and Food - 27 March 2001
What is Foot and Mouth Disease?
Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is caused by a highly infectious virus that affects cloven hoofed animals like cows, sheep, and pigs.
It can be transferred through physical contact between animals, it can be blown like pollen in the wind, or it can be carried on the feet of travellers, the tyres of cars or on the surfaces of animal handling equipment.
The only way to halt the spread of the disease is to isolate those farms or regions where the disease has been found; slaughter and burn those animals known to have contracted or been in contact with the disease; and prevent the movement of any stock anywhere.
Can humans get FMD?
Humans cannot get FMD from eating food but there have been rare incidences overseas in the past when people have got FMD from close contact with infected animals. The symptoms were mild and the infected person would recover within a week. There have been no cases of FMD transmission between humans. FMD should not be confused with the human hand, foot and mouth disease which is an unrelated and usually mild virus.1.
Is Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) related to Mad Cow Disease (BSE)?
No. FMD is a viral infection of cloven hoofed animals. Humans cannot contract the FMD virus by eating meat or meat products derived from infected animals. Mad Cow Disease (BSE) is a disease of cattle, that has a human form (known as vCJD) which is fatal.
ANZFA confirms that FMD presents no threat to food safety.
Is Foot and Mouth Disease in Australia?
Australia has been free of Foot and Mouth Disease for almost 130 years. But because this disease is highly infective and easily spread, it could be brought to Australia by infected animals or animal products such as food or on the clothing of people who have been in infected areas.
What has Australia done to prevent the introduction of FMD in this country?
The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) has temporarily suspended the import of animals susceptible to Foot and Mouth Disease and to some animal related products from the European Union and from any country in which FMD is endemic or is occurring as an outbreak. This is because the virus could spread from products into animal populations.
This move follows the recent outbreak of the disease in the United Kingdom and the news that outbreaks have subsequently occurred in France and other countries.
AQIS will review its control measures on a daily basis and currently include increased surveillance of passengers, mail and courier items from all countries with FMD.
Horses and other animals which are not FMD-susceptible, but which have the potential for significant farm contact, will also be subject to the temporary import restrictions.
Why haven’t European dairy products and non-beef meat products been removed from supermarket shelves?
The only European origin meat and meat products that have been removed from shelves are those beef products that pose a BSE related safety risk to people.
Some imported dairy products and non-beef meat and meat products have been stopped at the border to prevent the spread of FMD to animals, although AQIS has recently lifted some of these restrictions. The remaining products on supermarket shelves pose no threat to human health and food safety, and have therefore not been recalled from supermarkets.
- British Medical Journal Vol 322; March 2001 pp565-6. bmj.com
The latest information on the restriction of imports to Australia to control FMD can be obtained at www.affa.gov.au/outputs/quarantine.html.
For information about FMD in New Zealand see the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry website www.maf.govt.nz.