Three people may have contracted foot-and-mouth,

April 24, 2001 11:10 AM

Three people may have contracted foot-and-mouth, though all the tests aren't in. This is the first time this has occured during the current outbreak. I think the most, er, interesting thing is exactly how one of the guys got it.
posted by sj (20 comments total)

Exploding carcass? How does that happen?

What will become of these three Typhoid Marys?
posted by mathowie at 11:15 AM on April 24, 2001

gases build up inside the body, I think.

YICK! he'll always carry listerine on the job from now on....
posted by rebeccablood at 11:17 AM on April 24, 2001

I could only read the first two paragraphs. My gag reflex set in and I had to scarmble for the back button.
posted by ttrendel at 11:18 AM on April 24, 2001

Jesus Christ in cream sauce. That was a scarifying read.

Although I do like this:

The Isle of Man has so far remained foot-and-mouth free.

How much do I want for them to use this as a tourist lure?
posted by Skot at 11:24 AM on April 24, 2001

> There is no evidence the disease can be passed from
> person to person.

Unless they explode?
posted by jfuller at 11:31 AM on April 24, 2001

Gross. Can't say much more than that.
posted by thinkfuture at 11:49 AM on April 24, 2001

Can the Washington press corps contract this disease from Dubya boot licking? That dude nearly keeps a foot-in-the-mouth. Aha!! So that's what ending press conferences is about, a quarantine!! Thank you for the opportunity to present an amusing aside to this gruesome event.
posted by nofundy at 12:19 PM on April 24, 2001

After reading the headline, I thought, of course, of number 6.
posted by jpoulos at 12:20 PM on April 24, 2001

From the article: "Health officials said foot-and-mouth was no more serious in humans than in animals. It is not fatal, and symptoms resemble those of mild flu."

Yeah, it's not fatal unless you're an animal who gets whacked because you've come down with it. If it's so harmless, why the hell are they slaughtering millions of animals to prevent its spread?
posted by kindall at 12:30 PM on April 24, 2001

kindall wrote: "why the hell are they slaughtering millions of animals to prevent its spread?"

Simple. Economics.

The sick, thin animal that results from F disease is not worth the cost, and (if the USA model applies here) the farmer can write it off as a loss.

I'm not saying this is good or bad; but, that is the way most wasting diseases - even if non-fatal - are handled on cattle farms.
posted by hadashi at 1:03 PM on April 24, 2001

Note To Self: Face shield and respirator when hauling around carcasses.

Strange, doesn't really seem like such counter intuitive advice.
posted by daver at 1:39 PM on April 24, 2001

After reading the headline, I thought, of course, of number 6.

.... to which my immediate reaction was, "Huh? What does hoof-and-mouth disease have to do with Number Six?" A-heh.
posted by webmutant at 1:45 PM on April 24, 2001

Exploding cow carcasses? Someone's been toying with their Horadric Cube again…
posted by Danelope at 4:43 PM on April 24, 2001

Why are they slaughtering millions of animals?

Because the alternative, vaccination (which would protect animals from the disease for six months) was ruled out when the outbreak first occurred, on the grounds that vaccination would mean that British meat products would not be saleable overseas. So MAFF decided that the quickest solution would be to slaughter lots of animals in an attempt to prevent the spread of the disease while still enabling the export of meat products.

Gah... of course, foot and mouth can be spread by other animals (e.g. birds, badgers) which are not killed off by the slaughter programme, so the policy was doomed to failure from the start; and the news of the epidemic means that no one wants to buy the meat anyway.

Foot and mouth isn't even a fatal virus in many cases.
posted by Caffa at 2:47 AM on April 25, 2001

of course, foot and mouth can be spread by other animals (e.g. birds, badgers) which are not killed off by the slaughter programme,

It can also be spread by dodgy livestock traders distributing animals across the country in order for the numbers to add up when the EU subsidies are doled out. Now I'd like to add those bastards to the slaughter programme.
posted by holgate at 4:58 AM on April 25, 2001

danelope: after clicking on your link, and deciding i must be the only person in the whole world who has never played diablo II.... what on earth is "wirth's leg" ?? are the makers of computer games trying to tell me that they create people who occasionally misplace one (or both??) their legs and one's mission is to find them in order to gain access to the Head Bovine who comes complete with lightning bolts? ;-) oh lordy, what is the (computer) world coming to!! *grins*

on a more serious note, the thing that disturbs me is that despite such a destructive and compeletely wholesale slaughter of animals, the f & m is still "rampaging" across europe (maybe we should blame wirth and his lost leg for trampling around without disinfecting??)

if the slaughter isn't working, why aren't alternative methods being tried - eg the aforementioned vaccination?
posted by cakefork at 5:33 AM on April 25, 2001

The Isle of Man has so far remained foot-and-mouth free.

I was there a couple of weeks ago, and they're desperately trying to keep it out. But I suspect it's only a matter of time, especially with the TT looming. Even if they go ahead and cancel it, hordes of people will still turn up.
posted by Nick Jordan at 5:42 AM on April 25, 2001

cakeform: Wirt was a character from Tristram in the original Diablo game. He had a false leg, and its existence in the second game is pretty much a humorous throwback that fans of the first game would recognize. (I, personally, never played the original Diablo.)

Wirt's Leg becomes very interesting if you have Charsi (the blacksmith at Rogue Encampment) enchant it when given the chance, especially when you're at lower levels.

In the spirit of staying within topic: if humans can contract foot-and-mouth disease from animals, can animals contract it from humans?
posted by Danelope at 6:52 AM on April 25, 2001

It is thought that humans can carry the disease on clothing, I understand - hence all the fuss about disinfecting people's shoes at airports.
posted by Caffa at 7:15 AM on April 25, 2001

The exploding cows in Diablo are rather too realistically portrayed. Ugh.

There was an interesting TV show on here that was originally made and screened by the BBC. Although about vCJD, there were some interesting references made to foot and mouth disease, and the deficiencies of the health and research systems that are trying to cope both of these diseases. There's a transcript of it here for anyone who's interested.
posted by lucien at 10:37 AM on April 25, 2001