Foot & Mouth

[Douglas Pearson]

As I understand it, although the disease is not *fatal* to animals, it
renders them *economically* worthless (or at least less valuable - I'm not
clear on the reasons for this, but I would assume that it causes the
animals to "waste away" to some extent, decreasing milk production or
amount of usable meat), which, to a farmer/rancher, IS essentially the same
as killing it.  The other factor being that it *spreads* incredibly easily
(through the regular air), so that a small outbreak can easily lead to a
large one, which would therefore have large-scale economic consequences.
It only *affects* hoofed animals, but any animate (or, apparently,
inanimate!) object can *carry* it.  So the disease does carry the potential
to devastate meat-based farming economies where it hits; just one more
reason why we should all be vegetarians, I suppose ...

    -Doug
     ceres at sirius.com

On Thu, 22 Mar 2001 01:00:16 +0000, Carl Edlund Anderson
<scylding at CARLAZ.COM> wrote:
>Of course, I have yet to hear any good explanation of why everyone is
>in such a tizzy over a disease that is -- from what I understand, not
>that there's been much clarification -- not particularly fatal to the
>animals, difficult for humans to contract, and extremely mild even if
>humans do manage to catch it. But hey, that's the gov't for ya ...
>
>Cheers,
>Carl