A couple of minor addenda.

  1. Cattle, sheep, pigs and other infected animals do not die directly from Foot & Mouth disease - rather the blisters which form around the mouth mean they experience such pain through the process of eating that eventually they starve.
  2. Foot & Mouth infection vectors are not yet fully researched or understood by the scientific community. It is known that physical carriers - people, vehicles, non-susceptible animal contact - can cause spead of the disease and this is viewed as the major preventable vector. However, given that the droplets containing the virus material are tiny and also relatively long lived, they can, and have, been proven to be carried by wind and exacerbated by precipitation.
  3. Only those animals with a cloven hoof are susceptible to Foot & Mouth disease, however non-susceptible animals of all types (including humans) can and do act as transmission vectors for the virus.
  4. Although a vaccine is widely available, that vaccine itself has acted as a transmission vector in thousands of cases and is known to increase susceptibility to other viruses such as colds, influenza and others. These effects are proven to be transmissable to humans consuming products from vaccinated animals. The widespread vaccination of farm animals would also lead to those animals acting as non-susceptible carriers, thus making the disease endemic within national herds.